Ben Strader is the Executive Director of Blue Mountain Center, a residency program for writers and artists located in Blue Mountain Lake, New York. He is the founding board chair of the Indian Lake Theater, a new life as a community stage and screen for a defunct movie house in central Hamilton County. For many years Ben served as the Secretary of the Blue Mountain Lake Volunteer Fire Department and the Indian Lake Planning Board. He’s on the planning team for the Indian Lake Equality and Justice Committee, and helped create the Adirondack Nonprofit Network, a group dedicated to supporting Adirondack communities and the non-profit organizations that serve them. He is the proud father of two Adirondack natives, a seventeen year old daughter and a fifteen year old son.