Maple Program Volunteer Page
The MacKenzie Center Educators are excited to announce that the MacKenzie Center will be hosting Maple Education Program in March 2025! This program will offer 4th grade students the opportunity to:
1) visit our “sugarbush,”
2) learn the history and process of making maple syrup, and
3) enhance their knowledge of tree identification and the process of photosynthesis.
This educational experience will feature “hands-on” learning, including tapping a tree, making a spile to take home, and tasting some pure MacKenzie maple syrup! Maple Education is not possible without the incredible help and support from you: the dedicated and passionate volunteers. During maple season, we tap over 150 trees and reach over 1,200 students. We typically collect around 1,000 gallons of sap and produce around 35-40 gallons of pure maple syrup.
Volunteers are needed throughout the month of March as we host 4th graders from all-over South-Central Wisconsin for this special spring program. Maple field trips occur twice a day, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in March. Volunteers can sign up for just a few days or for the entire month of the education program. Many education volunteers will participate in 3 or more days throughout the month. No previous experience is necessary, but we do caution you that this experience is addicting! This is a great chance to learn from experienced volunteers and try something new. If someone you know would like to volunteer for the first time, please share this information!
We are thrilled to invite everyone to the 2025 Maple Volunteer Training! Our training session will be held this year at the MacKenzie Center Lodge on Tuesday, February 18 from 9am until 12pm, with lunch provided and supplemental guide training in the afternoon. If you are interested in this opportunity, please contact us. Volunteers can also fill out the Maple Volunteer Information Form to help us plan for the Maple Season.
In addition to these trainings, we’ll be having other volunteering opportunities and information sessions. The important dates throughout the season are listed in the Important Maple Dates. We also included a list of Maple Position Descriptions. We want to incorporate the experience of our volunteers into this training. If you’re experienced in working as a guide and would be able to teach during the training, please let us know!
We cannot wait to see everyone in February! In the meantime, please feel free to reach out to one of our educators, Rachel Padour or Joseph Montaine, with any questions about dates or the trainings or programs in general. You can reach us by email or by phone –
Rachel Padour: Rachel.padour@wisconsin.gov
Joseph Montaine: Joseph.montaine@wisconsin.gov
Education Office Phone: (608) 635-8112
Education Cell Phone: (608) 588-4056.
Thank you all so much for your involvement in past Maple Seasons. We are looking forward to a wonderful 2025 season!
Here comes the yellow school bus bringing a load of enthusiastic fourth graders set to swarm the otherwise quiet and serene MacKenzie center. As the excited youngsters and chaperones disembark, groups are formed and introductions are made. I begin by discussing the day’s events. I immediately ask the students “why are you here?” Some answer “to see the animals” while others inform me they are here to “eat maple syrup” or “climb the tower!” We begin our lessons by learning how to identify sugar maple trees but the tricky part is all the identifying leaves fell in the fall. I explain about photosynthesis and why this is such an important part of the maple process.
As a guide, I like to remind the students of Native Americans and how they came to a “sugar bush” to collect sap. In order to collect sap, we use a spile pounded into the maple tree so the sap can run out. A plant, the elderberry bush, is used to make these spiles. I show the students what the elderberry wood looks like and each makes a spile of their own to take home. Guiding my group, I find a maple tree to tap and show them how this is done. Hopefully the weather is cooperating and the temperature is just right for the sap to flow. I encourage the students to taste the sap.
At this point it is mostly water and we discuss how it becomes syrup. We make our way from the “sugar bush” to the finishing area so the students can see how sap was boiled years ago comparing to how it’s done today. Ending our day in the woods, we are treated with time to sit around a camp fire and discuss what they have just experienced. The best part is the reward of a spoonful of “liquid gold,” or maple syrup as you may know it.
~ Steve Siegler, Maple Education Program Volunteer since 2009.