Memberships in the Friends of MacKenzie come up for renewal each January, so now is a great time to take care of that. You can use the form at the end of this post or find one in our brochure. Even though many of you contribute many volunteer hours (which makes a huge difference in keeping the Center running and enabling the friends to do so many things), you might also wish to become a member.
The dues help fund scholarships for schools and other groups when they come to MacKenzie for day and over night trips (often used for transportation costs). It also is used directly for materials for projects like replacing the roof on the log cabin museum, safety improvements for our hay wagon, purchasing bird feeding supplies, improvements to the wildlife area, and so much more. Please consider renewing or becoming a new member today.
Online membership form for 2025 is available.
Membership dues are as follows:
Family – $40.00 Individual – $30.00 Life – $300.00
Set up for the fest will be Friday, April 4 at 9:00. Meet by the Finishing House to plan out jobs.
Maple Fest April 5th from 9 AM to 2 PM
Saturday, April 5 8:00 – NOON – BREAKFAST at the Lodge $10 per person, $5 for under 13.
- Volunteers should report about 7:30. (Or, about 20 minutes before your afternoon shift)
- Parking for volunteers will be behind the fence beyond the Administration Building.
- Sign in at the Finishing House. Get your name tag, donut, and coffee or hot chocolate.
- Interested in any of these positions? Please contact Rachel Padour at 608-635-8112 and Linda Finn at Lf46finn@gmail.com.
If you are bringing cookies for the bake sale, they can be taken to the Finishing House on Friday, April 4th from 9-1 or to the bake sale table on Saturday after 7:30.
Clean up will be on Monday, April 7 at 9:00. Spring cleaning will be happening. All the stuff will be cleaned out from the garage and the finishing house. All the buckets and spiles have to be washed, all the tents put away, and everything from Maple Fest tucked away for another year.
Breakfast for the volunteers is on April 8th at 10 am. The syrup will be passed out to those who have earned it.
Again, Thank you all so much for your dedication to the Maple Program, and we cannot wait to see everyone during that weekend!
Sincerely,
MacKenzie Staff and the Friends of MacKenzie
Friends of MacKenzie Maple Fest
Saturday, April 5, 2025
9 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Ever wonder how maple syrup goes from inside a maple tree to your pancakes and waffles? Join us at the Friends of MacKenzie Maple Fest to learn about the past and present of maple sugaring practices.
This sweet event will offer all things maple syrup, including various drop-in activities, guided tours of our sugarbush, demonstrations on how to tap a tree and interpretive talks about the historical methods and cultural importance of maple sugaring in Wisconsin. Gift shop, concessions and local Wisconsin maple syrup will be available. Quilt raffle drawing at noon.
This event is free and open to the public, and you do not need a state park sticker to attend.
This handmade quilt (68″ x 77″) named “Moose Lodge” will be raffled at a drawing held at the MacKenzie Center on Saturday, April 5, 2025 at 12:00 pm. The quilt was made by Carol Buckmaster and is meant to honor the Wisconsin tradition of going “up north”. The quilt is on display at the Poynette Library until April 4th.
Tickets are $1 each or 6 for $5 and can be purchased from Friends of MacKenzie members or at Maple Fest on April 5. Quilt shown will be raffled off at Maplefest April 5th @ 12:00 noon. Raffle tickets will be available at Maplefest up till the drawing, or you can contact me at Cell 6087208730. We can arrange a meet time and place.
All proceeds benefit the MacKenzie Center through the Friends of MacKenzie.
DNR EVENTS
First Day Hike, Jan 1st
Learn to Cross Country Ski, Jan 4th
Wolf Moon Hike, Jan 13th
Annual Membership Meeting, Jan 16th
Maple Program Volunteer Training, Feb 18th and 19th
Snowshoe Candlelight Hike, Feb 21st
Spring Youth Archery, March 22nd
Maple Fest, April 5th
MOHEE, May 14th-15th
Member Picnic, Aug 17th
Fall Fest, Oct 18th
On Sunday, April 16, 2023, Friends of MacKenzie Center members were able to learn a great deal about raptors and got to see four live birds at a presentation by Dianne Moller, director of Hoo’s Woods Raptor Center in Milton, WI. The center is a non-profit organization dedicated to the rehabilitation of raptor species (eagles, hawks, owls, falcons and vultures) founded in 1998. It also focuses on education and uses birds which are unable to be returned to the wild (usually due to injuries) as teaching ambassadors. We got to see a Saw Whet Owl, Broadwinged Hawk, Snowy Owl and Bald Eagle. The program was originally scheduled as part of our Friends of MacKenzie annual meeting in January, but had to be postponed due to weather. Programs like these are a great reason to join the Friends of MacKenzie!
Diane with SawWhet Owl
Broadwinged Hawk
Snowy Owl
Bald Eagle
Great article in Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine about the maple program at MacKenzie! Begins on p. 16.
This letter is for maple program volunteers, but the information about how the program went in 2022 may be of interest to others.
Dear Maple Volunteers,
Maple season has come to a close, and we cannot thank you enough for all of your time, energy, enthusiasm, and guidance through the first Maple Education season since COVID. For most of our staff, this was our first Maple Season, and we could not have put this together without the guidance and leadership of the Friends of MacKenzie and our dedicated volunteers. So, from all of us, THANK YOU!!! We had so much fun putting this together, and are so glad that we got to be a part of this program.
To show our appreciation, we are excited to announce a Volunteer Thank You Barbecue, on Saturday, May 21st, 2022. We did not get the chance to thank you with food on clean-up day, but we’d love to see you in May for a day of fun and food! This event is possible thanks to the Friends of MacKenzie’s hard work and funds!
This year’s Maple Program exceeded our expectations in every way. With the bussing troubles, new variants, and general hesitation for field trips this year, we were not sure what to expect! But, after calling all of you, and on our Maple Call-In Day, we were blown away, and the season continued to surprise us. Maple 2022 brought in more students than many of our staff have seen since starting here! We also met so many people who care so much for MacKenzie and about Environmental Education, and are so grateful to everyone who made Maple so amazing. For those of you who like to see numbers, here are our stats from Maple 2022:
- 1,013 students came to Maple this year!
- Maple Fest drew 838 people!
- 54 Volunteers came together to make this happen!
- Those 54 Volunteers gave 2,095 hours total to the maple program, for an average of 38 hours per person!
- The volunteer with the most time, volunteered 99.25 hours of their time this year!
- In total, our students and guides tapped 102 trees, and a total of 113 trees were tapped this year!
- Over the season, over 1,800 gallons of sap were collected!
- The average sugar content of the sap was 4.0 % Brix, with a high of 4.7% on March 30th!
- 337 Pints of MacKenzie Gold, in total, were produced.
Again, thank you all for such a wonderful season. Please save the date for May 21st, when we will host our Volunteer Thank You Breakfast!
Sincerely,
The MacKenzie Center Staff and the Friends of MacKenzie
Hayley Parsons has been an Educator and Wildlife Technician at the MacKenzie Center for over five years, but is now moving on to be a high school science teacher. Her energy, creativity, hard work, and great personality and attitude have brought so much to the MacKenzie Center and really made a difference. We will miss her very much, but wish her the best and know she will be a great teacher.
Hayley with her goodbye/congratulations cake.
Good luck in all your future endeavors, Hayley!
Broadwinged Hawk
