September 14 – 20, 2019
In memory of Louise W. Willson.
Free admission to children ages twelve and under when accompanied by an adult.
Saturday, September 14, 2019
This is one for all of the puzzle enthusiasts! Bring your friends and family to the Wigwam Escape! Can you thrive for a day in 1518 in a Native American village in the woodlands of Connecticut? It’s up to you and your teammates to figure out how to gather and prepare your supplies by solving a series of puzzles. Immerse yourself in the history of Connecticut’s Native people while learning more about the skills they relied on in their day to day lives. The Wigwam Escape is a puzzle room designed to challenge the ordinary museum experience! Space is limited to 8 participants, so sign-up early.
We depart the Museum at 10:00 a.m. in the WMCC van. We’ll have a short tour of the IAIS museum; listen carefully because you will learn something that will help you solve the Wigwam Escape! Bring your own lunch and drink. Members and Non-Members $20.00, that’s a Museum Tour and Wigwam Escape for one price! We’ll return to WMCC at 2:30 p.m. Pre-registration and pre-payment are required. Call 860-567-0857 or register online: www.whitememorialcc.org
Saturday, September 21, 2019
The Bald Eagle is America’s comeback raptor and its rebound from the Endangered Species list is one of the most remarkable environmental stories of the 20th Century. Human interaction caused its decline to just 400 nesting pairs by the early 1960s in the contiguous United States and the work of visionary environmentalists helped secure its revival. In 1992, Connecticut had just one nesting pair of eagles and those were in Litchfield County at the Barkhamsted Reservoir. In 2018, there were 38 active nests throughout the state that produced 68 chicks.
Around 2011, White Memorial and Bantam Lake welcomed their own eagles, a nesting pair that started setting up house in 2011. Since then these majestic birds have called this area home and return each year in late January to shore up their nest, mate and, eventually lay and hatch eggs.
For four years now, Leo Kulinski has photographed these eagles while braving the biting chill of January and February standing on the ice hoping for an eagle in flight or heads popping up in the nest.
Leo will lend his photographs and observations of the Bantam Lake eagles while Master Wildlife Conservationist Ginny Apple speak about Bald Eagle as the two will combine to present a glimpse of these majestic birds that we now can call our own.
2:00 p.m., A. B. Ceder Room, Members: FREE, Non-members: $5.00, Pre-registration and pre-payment are required. Call 860-567-0857 to register or register online: www.whitememorialcc.org
About Ginny Apple: A native Texan, Ginny Apple was one of the first full-time women sportswriters in the country, who left the field mid-career to pursue a path in communications/public relations, ending her career with the Connecticut Judicial Branch where she was the Branch historian, photographer and the creative director of the Branch’s website.
Through the years she has hiked, climbed, kayaked, skied and poked her way through the outdoors and developed a passion for all things natural.
A move to the middle of the woods in Barkhamsted 14 years ago brought her into an environment filled with bears and other wildlife. Living in a house surrounded by Peoples State Forest, she observes a large population of Black Bears and supplies field notes and photographs on them to DEEP bear biologists. Her affinity for this magnificent creature led her out west to participate in a Grizzly research mission in Montana and to become a Master Wildlife Conservationist with the State Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
She is a member of the Barkhamsted Conservation and Economic Development Commissions, on the Boards of the Farmington River Watershed Association (FRWA), the Friends of Connecticut States Parks and the Friends of American Legion and Peoples State Forests (FALPS), volunteers regularly with the Barkhamsted Historical Society and maintains the Facebook pages for the Town of Barkhamsted, the Barkhamsted Historical Society and FALPS.
Just to keep her creative juices percolating, she has a side business, Murder Without Pain, where she writes murder mystery games based on historical subjects and runs them at country inns, corporate parties and fundraisers.
About Leo Kulinski, Jr.: White Memorial’s brilliant Court Photographer, participant in every edition of the Litchfield Hills Road Race, Humpback Whale Whisperer, Bald Eagle Godfather, James Taylor Devotee, and just about the most humble guy you would ever hope to meet. www.leokulinskijr.com
Friday, September 27, 2019
There will only be star gazing tonight! 8:00 P.M., Meet at the Observatory in the Sawmill Field.
Saturday, September 28, 2019
Our annual celebration of Mother Nature is a must for folks of all ages. This 38th edition is chock full of the greatest presenters! Brain Bradley will be here with his beautiful free-flying hawks and falcons. Riverside Reptiles’ Brian Kleinman is perhaps the greatest mind in reptiles in our state. Come visit the many friends he’ll be bringing along. Visit with Creature Teachers and their beautiful array of animals found right in your back yard! Meet a Bald Eagle, Golden Eagle, and more with Horizon Wings Raptor Rehabilitation and Education Center! Lisa Monacelli from Stamford Nature Center will teach you about (and FEED YOU) Edible Insects! Music will be provided by Ian Campbell and The Boxcar Lilies. The day is filled with live animals, guided nature walks, information booths, horse drawn wagon rides, and yummy food provided by The Litchfield Lions Club, South County Crepes, Hardcore Cupcakes, Cups and Cones Ice Cream, and Maple Treats from Winter Wind Farm. Shop until you drop at the artisans market. Get in a bidding war at our silent auction. Lots of nature crafts for the kiddies too! Will you be the winner of a trip for two to Iceland ( donated by Krummi Travel LLC) with Gerri Griswold in June 2020 or luxuriating for two nights at the incomparable Winvian? Take three friends and spend an evening camping with the wolves at the New York Wolf Conservation Center! Those are the three prizes up for grabs in our annual raffle! So much to do! Feed your mind, body, and soul! 11:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M., Admission: $6.00, Center Members and children under 12 are FREE!
Nature’s Nursery
First Thursday of Each Month (Sep. 5, Oct. 3, Nov. 7, Dec. 5)
Ages 3-6 Years
Nature’s Nursery Series
Join us on the first Thursday of each month for hour-long programs designed just for your young nature lovers. Every session will include a story, an encounter with a live animal, and an activity or craft. Bring your kids out to White Memorial for a jam-packed hour of hands-on learning. Parents, we ask that you stay for the duration of the program. Meet in the A.B. Ceder Room. 4-5pm. Advanced registration is required. Members: $8/child per session or $25/whole series, Non-Members: $12/child per session or $45/whole series.
Saturday, October 5, 2019
Spend time with popular mycologist Marlene Snecinski aka Mushroom Marlene as she leads you on a lovely foray to collect and identify edible mushrooms. Return to the A. B. Ceder Room with your treasures. A presentation and mushroom tasting will follow the walk! Class is limited to 20! Register soon! 10:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m., Meet in the A. B. Ceder Room. Members: $15.00, Non-members: $30.00 Pre-registration and pre-payment are required. Call 860-567-0857 or register online.
Saturday, October 5, 2019
The potential for Art is hidden in each of us. In today’s fast-paced lifestyle, surrounded by bio-hazardous waste and global disasters looming, we have little space and time to explore our creativity. We stay guarded in our “fight-flight” reactionary worlds, forgetting or perhaps never having discovered, a place inside ourselves, of inner peace. Art 2 Nurture Your Nature touches that place of peace, bringing it to consciousness, where feelings can be validated. In this space and time, one can discover the peace within, describe and define it artistically, bring it to view for others to share or keep it sacred to treasure alone. If you have ever been moved by a glorious sunset; a hillside of sheep awakening at dawn; witnessed a nest of barn swallows being fed; or listened to songbirds at daybreak: You have been at that place where your heart finds peace. Jan invites you to be introduced to that place you can capture, hold it in your hand, take it with you and remember why you are here.
Jan Lyon has a Masters degree in Education from Antioch University, a Bachelors in Psychology minoring in Art Therapy from West Virginia Wesleyan College and the University of MD. She has worked professionally for over 40 years in human services, developing and implementing a variety of programs and supports for children and families. Her expertise lies in a great love for the gifts in each person’s special needs, ranging from sensory, cognitive, emotional, physical and health-related early challenges; to those that life brought later in life by chance, or by fate. Jan is the adoptive parent of two children born with special needs, and is currently raising her grandson. She has used the arts to overcome her own obstacles and renew drained energy. She is a native of CT, an avid nature-lover, owning a farm in New Hartford for 35 years where she raised horses, sheep, goats and a variety of birds. Now a resident of Prospect, Jan hopes to retire and continue to explore the creative arts. She enjoys the natural life that graces each day with new sights and sounds, smells and tastes, that let us know “The Nature of Our Self.” Limited individual or group art exploration sessions are available by request. Email: Jan-lyon@sbcglobal.net
Jan is currently the Director of Outreach and Children’s Services for Brooker Memorial in Torrington. 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m., A. B. Ceder Room, The reception is free but you must pre-register by calling 860-567- 0857 or register online.