Fast approaching is the mad dash to retail stores for once-a-year deals on the hottest merchandise, but there’s one event coming up that allows people to slow down and connect with nature before the big feast that kicks off the holiday season.
The Emma Treadwell Thacher Nature Center will hold its 13th annual Thanksgiving Celebration on Saturday, Nov. 23, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event provides activities aimed to inspire an awareness and appreciation of Mother Nature through educational, family-friendly programming. Several demonstrations, including some that are interactive, along with crafts and refreshments, will offer families time to bond and unplug from an increasing digital culture.
“We want to remind kids there is a lot of fun to be had playing, doing things and going outside,” Nancy Engel, director of Thacher Nature Center, said. “We get into the holiday season, and we value that even more. There is a lot of stress and pressure on sort of our commercial holidays.”
Shortly after the Nature Center opened in the summer of 2001, the Thanksgiving event was the “big event” it held, Engel said.
She said she really enjoys the event because of the tradition and also because the couple who funded the center’s construction, Fred and Martha Schroeder, “loved” it.
“We try to make it as low-cost as possible … it is not an event we make any money off of,” Engel said. “It is really special to us because we have been doing it every year, and folks do seem to get a lot out of it.”
The event is $6 for adults and free for children. There is a small fee for materials used in craft activities, and refreshments, including hot dogs to roast over a fire and a more traditional offering of “three sisters” soup, will be available.
“We wanted to do an alternative Thanksgiving that was not all about eating turkey and was more about awareness and appreciation,” she said.
One highlight of the event, she said, is Algonkian descendent and historical re-enactor Jennifer Lee demonstrating bark basket making, along with sharing history and ancient stories. Lee also does her presentations around a fire inside a wigwam. People arriving early may participate in setting up the wigwam, too.
“It creates a really cool space that kids love,” Engel said.
Participants will be able to learn from primitive skills teacher Devin Franklin, of Flying Deer Nature Center, how to start a fire with a large bow and drill.
Franklin will also show how acorns are processed to make nutty treats, which Engel said many people probably would not know could be done. You might even pick up a recipe for Thanksgiving dinner.
“Acorn bread is delicious,” she said. “You process the acorns almost into flour and it makes a really nice, nutty bread.”
Environmental educator George Steele continues the hunter and gatherer theme by presenting the many ways native peoples made use of deer for more than just food, such as creating tools, toys and instruments.
Attendees will also be able to taste a variety of state-grown apples and learn about healthy snacks from the Honest Weight Food Co-op.
Craft activities at the event include decorating gourd rattles and painting stone totems. Everyone will also be invited to personalize a “leaf of thankfulness” to hang on the Thanksgiving tree followed by a ceremony of appreciation around a warm fire.
“Usually by the end of the event it is like a little community, and everyone gathers around the fire,” Engel said. “We certainly get a lot of very positive feedback. We have some folks who come every year, and they love it as a day to do simple things that we normally don’t do.”
Thacher Nature Center is located on Thompson’s Lake in the Helderberg Mountains. For information about the event or directions, call 872-0800, or visit www.nysparks.com.