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
Friends of MacKenzie created a scholarship for high school and college students who live in the Columbia county to receive a scholarship of $1000 in a specific related field. A set of rules can be found on the
website.
The deadline is March 15th. Please share the information with your family and friends.
Here’s the great group we have representing the Friends of MacKenzie Center.
The end date of their term is in parentheses.
President, Carl Bujanowski (2026);
Vice President, Chris Devine (2027);
Treasurer, Lila Waldman (2026);
Secretary, Susan Hill (2027); and
board members:
Paul Alexander (2025),
Don Lucke (2025),
Wayne Tourdot (2025),
Roger Wanek (2025),
Tony Schwarz (2026),
Kim Sperry Frazier (2027), and
Karen Dishno Voss (2027).
Thanks to this dedicated and hard working group of volunteers.
At the annual banquet on Jan 16th, there will be an election to fill 4 positions. Think about joining the wonderful group of people!
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!
The MacKenzie Center is open Sunday-Saturday from dawn to dusk. THe Wildlife Exhibit, Museums, and Administration Building Restrooms are open from 10 am – 4 pm daily. Museum and indoor restrooms are now open! There are also four new kiosks around the property to aid visitors during their exploration of the MacKenzie Center.
Broadwinged Hawk
