Lucy Beaulieu, the finance manager for USA Luge, became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2021. On Halloween, she voted in her first election. She is seen here a week later — Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 7 — at the USA Luge office. (News photo — Sydney Emerson)
LAKE PLACID — On Halloween, USA Luge Finance Manager Lucy Beaulieu cast her first ballot in an American election during early voting at the Mirror Lake Beach House. Her vote was a long time coming.
“It felt good because it was my first time and I felt pretty proud inside. It was just me; my husband’s like, ‘You do your thing.’ It felt great,” she said. “It feels good because, you know, since I’ve lived here, it’s local politics and I know who the candidates are, what their platforms are, so I feel like I am making a difference for my kids in the future.”
Beaulieu, 39, moved from her hometown of Manila, the capital of the Philippines, to the Adirondacks in 2009 to be with her husband, Jordan. The pair met on MySpace in 2006 and, after two years of dating, got married during their first face-to-face visit.
“It was really taboo back in the day, this whole ‘We met on MySpace’ thing,” Beaulieu said. “He visited me and we planned on getting married that visit, so we got married there, and then he came back. And then, a year later, I processed my visa and all of that and I moved here.”
She had never planned to move abroad when she was younger, but she said that “it was natural” when she met Jordan. With the internet, she knew that she could stay connected to her family. She even enjoyed her first Adirondack snowfall — the first snowfall she experienced in her life. The toughest part of the transition was something she did not anticipate: how quiet St. Regis Falls was after the sun set.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Lucy Beaulieu’s 2021 naturalization ceremony took place outside. She said that it took her seven months to obtain U.S. citizenship. (Provided photo)
“It was like a 180 transition, pretty much,” she said. “When I first moved here, we lived at his parents’ house. We were young. We lived in St. Regis Falls for a few months and I’m like, OK, it’s 8 p.m., why is it so quiet? I grew up in a metropolis.”
Back in the Philippines, Beaulieu went to school for accounting and was a certified public accountant — though not entirely of her own volition.
“I was pretty much forced by my parents to be a CPA. Really, that’s really a true story,” she said. “They were like, there are so many engineers in the family. You’re going to be the first CPA in the family. So I did.”
After moving to the U.S., Beaulieu did not practice accounting anymore. Instead, she decided to build upon her skills — though she never expected that would include a career in the world of international winter sports. She moved to Lake Placid in 2010 to start a job in operations at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center from 2010, and faced a steep learning curve.
“When we did tours at the training center, I would be like … I don’t even know what biathlon is,” she said. “I learned, but it was just funny when I first started there.”
Lucy Beaulieu said that she voted to make a difference in her daughters’ futures. (Provided photo)
In the years that followed, Beaulieu and her husband had two daughters, who are now 5 and 7 years old. After 10 years at the training center, Beaulieu took a new job with the state Olympic Regional Development Authority, and then was hired as USA Luge’s finance manager in August 2022. But, the biggest change in her life came in 2021 when she decided to take the first step toward citizenship submit her application for naturalization. It was a choice she made with the future in mind.
“I didn’t want to keep renewing my green card,” she said.
Green cards need to be renewed every 10 years, a process that can cost more than $500. Beaulieu was also interested in voting and said that citizenship would give her a more secure retirement.
All in all, the process took about seven months. Since the coronavirus pandemic was still at its height, everything was electronic. Beaulieu had to get her fingerprints taken and pass a verbal test with civic questions. Her naturalization ceremony was held outside, and her daughters were able to watch her take her Oath of Allegiance.
“It was a good learning experience,” she said.
Beaulieu is happy with her life in Lake Placid, and though she does miss her family back in Manila, she said she is grateful for technology that allows her to stay connected.
“I love Lake Placid. I feel safe here, especially growing up in the Philippines where there’s crime everywhere,” she said. “It’s a great place.”
