Year-round site of fun and learning to hold special celebration
In July of 2001, a unique new hub for natural conservancy and education opened up on the Helderberg Escarpment. This coming weekend, the Emma Treadwell Thacher Nature Center will celebrate its 10th birthday as a bigger, better and more active community resource than ever.
Located next to Thompson’s Lake and adjacent to the expansive Thacher Park, the Nature Center gets its namesake from the woman who donated the hundreds of acres of land that is now a recreational and natural icon for the entire Capital District. To celebrate its anniversary, the Nature Center will be holding a full day of activities and fun on Saturday, July 16, from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.
The event is to be 10 years almost to the day from the date the Nature Center was first opened. Emma Treadwell first made a gift of the land that became John Boyd Thacher State Park in 1914. In a later donation of lands along Thompson’s Lake, she stipulated that 10 acres be set aside for the Albany Boys’ Club summer camp.
That land later became the site of the Nature Center. Fred and Martha Schroeder in 1999 funded the construction. Fred was a part of running the summer camp and the couple wanted to see the area live on as a place for children to enjoy nature. He died about a year-and-a-half ago.
On Saturday, a dedication to the Fred Schroeder Memorial Trail will be held at noon.
Fred was an avid hiker, he led hikes for different hiking clubs pretty much every weekend, said Nature Center Director Nancy Engel. `He was integral in developing the trails in that section of the park.`
Engel has been a part of the Nature Center since before shovels went into the ground. She’s seen it grow from a small outpost to a thriving educational and environmental hotspot. The center was recently voted the `No. 1 Place to Take Kids in the Capital Region` in an online survey by KidsOutandAbout.com.
`We’ve certainly developed our programming. When we first opened we were starting from scratch,` Engel said. `We have an educator who works year-round … and we do a lot more programming. Actually, because of our Friends group supplying us with grant money, we’re able to pay for school buses to come up.`
That means schoolchildren can still enjoy the park’s resources in a time of dwindling school budgets.
The celebration’s events are planned to make use of the entire park. Scientists will lead an insect exploration and a geology walk and seine for fish at the lake. There will be programs at the historic Knox School No. 5 and guided tours of the Native Plant Gardens. Members of the Albany Area Amateur Astronomers Club will have solar-safe telescopes for viewing features of the sun and visitors can bring fossils and rocks to be identified by geologist Chuck Ver Straeten.
Youngsters will be able to paint T-shirts, go on a scavenger hunt, have their faces painted and participate in the creation of a nature mural.
The Knox Traditional Strings and The 3 J’s will provide music and Four Corners Luncheonette will offer lunch fare, baked goods, and beverages. There will be free ice cream, compliments of Stewart’s, and a celebration cake.
More information and a full schedule of events can be found at friendsofthacherpark.org
Engel said that without groups like the Friends of Thacher Park and Thompson’s Lake State Park, the Nature Center wouldn’t be the place it is today. Interns and natural sciences students have also conducted research and helped out at Thacher.
`We have had a lot of volunteers over the years, and that has certainly helped us develop all the programs that we have and kept the area looking great,` she said.
The Thacher Nature Center is open year-round, Tuesday through Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Special events are held year-round. For more information call 872-0800 or go to www.nysparks.com.
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