Using the Winter Carnival’s designated theme “Mask-erade” — although the button spells it the standard way, “Masquerade” — Trudeau’s illustrations shows six different Doonesbury characters, three on each button, wearing a variety of masks. Mike Doonesury’s has pine cones, BD’s has a skier, Boopsie’s has a bunny, Joanie’s has Hudson Bay blanket colors (green, red, yellow and indigo on a white background), Uncle Duke’s has a hole for his cigarette holder, and Zonker wears a snowflake mask over his eyes instead.

Trudeau, who grew up in Saranac Lake, has voluntarily created the Winter Carnival button designs since 1981 to benefit the Winter Carnival.

Buttons are one of the longest-running traditions of the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival. The buttons are collected by residents and visitors every year and have a devoted following of those who enjoy capturing a piece of Winter Carnival history.

The buttons cost $5 each and will be available at the following merchants in Saranac Lake: Ampersound, Adirondack Wine & Liquor, Adirondack Daily Enterprise, Blue Moon Cafe, Bear Essentials, Carcuzzi Car Care, Coakley Home & Hardware, Fusion Market, Hyde Mobil (stores on Broadway and Lake Flower Avenue), Kinney Drugs, Lakeview Deli, the Rusty Nail, Saranac Lake Wine & Liquor, Tops, Village Mercantile and Saranac Village at Will Rogers.

One of two 2021 Saranac Lake Winter Carnival burrons, designed by Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau

Buttons will also be sold during Winter Carnival at its gift shop, which this year will be an outdoor shop at the Ice Palace. Buttons are available through mail order by mailing your request to Barb Martin at P.O. Box 566, Saranac Lake, NY 12983. Make checks payable to Saranac Lake Winter Carnival Committee. Indicate how many buttons you want as well as your contact information. Past buttons are also available to order. Call Martin at 518-891-2382 to check for availability of years.

All buttons cost $5. There is an additional cost for shipping based on quantity of buttons ordered: $4 for one to four, $6 for five to eight, $7 for nine or more. (Mail prices subject to change.) Garry Trudeau’s father Dr. Frank Trudeau and grandfather Dr. Francis Trudeau were prominent Saranac Lake physicians, and his great-grandfather Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau was even more so — he essentially founded the village as a tuberculosis cure center in the late 1800s. Garry attended Lake Colby School in Saranac Lake through sixth grade before being sent away to boarding school. From there he went to Yale University, where he was an art major, received a Master of Fine Arts degree and started Doonesbury. It’s still the only comic strip ever to win a Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning.