How To Help Your Friends Of Mirror Lake State Park

Transcription

1 Friends of Mirror Lake Newsletter Winter 2012 Best ADA Park Awarded to Mirror Lake Jan Primus accepted the 2012 Gold Seal Award for Best ADA Park at the annual Friends awards banquet. This is awarded based on park user votes. This is a park award, but the Friends of Mirror Lake do many projects that support the park being ADA accessible thru funding of park improvements. This year s awards banquet was hosted by the Friends of Heritage Hill State Park in Green Bay. Mary Melton also received an award for her fall picture of the path to the Mirror Lake handicap fishing pier which was chosen for the Friends State Calendar Photo Contest. Several educational seminars are offered to Friends members at this event as well as the annual State Friends meeting. An afternoon trolley tour of historical buildings on the grounds was taken by the group from Mirror Lake. The evening was topped off with dinner and awards. Members who attend this annual event report enjoying touring other parks in Wisconsin and networking with Friends members from around the state. 1

2 400 people braved 30 degree temperatures to attend the Mirror Lake annual Halloween mystery hike. Families hiked a 1 mile torchlit trail and stopped at four clue stations to gain clues as to who this year s mystery guest was. The trail led to the new amphitheater where a live screech owl from Soaring Eagle rehab in Sauk City was our guest. Quite a few kids guessed correctly or were very close. At trail s end were 2 roaring bonfires and refreshments for sale by the Friends. Many families make this hike an annual family event. 2

3 FUN AND WORK DATES January 5th 4PM set up for Candlelight ski, hike, snowshoe event 6-8PM February 2nd 2PM General meeting at park office 4PM set up - 6-8PM Candlelight ski, hike, snowshoe February 6 th 8AM Project Committee meeting at park office 10AM Executive committee board meeting April 6 th 9AM General meeting at park office 10:30AM wood workday April 13 th 9AM Reedsburg Boy Scout workday TIDBITS LIKE US ON FACEBOOK Friends of Mirror Lake are now on Facebook. LIKE us on our Facebook page and get park updates. We are posting pictures of Friends happenings in the park and others. Keep up with what is going on in the park! You will find us listed as Friends of Mirror Lake State Park. We are in the process of getting a new website. It is under construction now, but look for us and bookmark at This will be replacing the current newsletter format and will showcase our group. Updated fun and work dates will be on the website too. This newsletter is the last paper edition. You can still get your Friends information and news on our Facebook page Friends of Mirror Lake State Park or our new website (under construction now) at Our president will send s to members with current info on meetings, workdays or other late breaking Friends news. Cindy Cseri s is [email protected]. If you previously received Friends s from Jan you do not need to Cindy with your address. Donations were received from Lake Delton and Baraboo Walmarts. MANY THANKS! Thanks the Ganz family for a generous donation. You can purchase a commemorative park bench for $ Think Holiday present! Forms to order are in the park office. Marty Heidke, the part time park naturalist, is retiring at year s end. He added many hikes and programs to the park s annual lineup. Kayak tours of the lake, learn to snowshoe and nature hikes were some of the events he ran. If you have ever been on one of his hikes/tours you know that he taught us much about the history of Wisconsin and the park. He plans to volunteer and run a few programs in The park will be hiring a replacement part time naturalist. Thanks to Marty for all your time and expertise. A new portable handicap duck blind was built by Delton Sportsman s club and is located off Lakeview Drive. The State Friends group 2013 calendar is available at the park office for $ Mirror Lake is the featured picture for October. 3

4 November Elections November ushers in elections and we have some position changes to report. Jan Primus is retiring as President and held the position for 5 years. Thank you Jan for a job well done. We have accomplished great things under your guidance. Cindy Cseri will begin her term as President. She previously held the position of Vice President and has worked closely with the membership over the years. We currently do not have a Vice President. Vern Jacobsen is our current Treasurer and Ann Petersen has agreed to fill the secretary position that she was temporarily holding for Kathy Frisch. Kathy held the secretary position for 6 years. Thanks to Kathy for your many years of service and thanks to Ann for filling the position. The director positions do not expire for 1 year and are held by Elaine Zarcone and Audrey McKnight. Thanks to all who agree to serve as officers, directors and on committees. Without them we have no club. Thank you MARY MELTON Five years ago, a Friends member spoke up and offered her help in producing our newsletter. This person had written some articles for horse magazines and felt that she could put together a newsletter. One of her first points was that the pictures would look better in color and so the newsletters have been printed in color. Mary was not only editor of the newsletter; she did most of the work. An event would happen at the park and she would drop everything, grab her camera and cover the story. She wrote some nature articles, developed a tidbit section which has covered all the details of the club, interviewed new park personnel and club officers, printed recipes, and was instrumental in promoting the park for the many awards we have received including Friends Group of the Year in Her newsletter signature was the joke on the last page. In addition to the newsletter, she helped manage our first web page which was part of FWSP web site for a couple of years. Our Facebook page is her current project. Please check us out on Facebook at Friends of Mirror Lake State Park. It has been my privilege to work closely with this energetic lady. Thanks Mary for all you have done and continue to do for the Friends of Mirror Lake State Park. Jan Primus President Editor s Note: Thanks to David Primus for his many hours of copying the newsletter and brochures in the past five years and in making certain they all got folded, stuffed and mailed. Also, thanks to Dan Frisch for being his assistant. Thanks to everyone who submitted articles for the newsletter. Thanks to Becky, park manager, for proofreading the newsletter and offering technical advice. I have enjoyed doing the newsletter and keeping everyone up to date on all our workdays and park events. I will still be doing so through our Facebook page. Mary Melton 4

5 By Mary Melton and Jan Primus Jan and I would like to take a few pages to look back upon the last 5 years and some of the club s accomplishments. There have been many! Enjoy. Mounts we have funded Bobcat Bear Wolf River Otter Coyote 5

6 Buildings & other projects we helped fund and/or build 6

7 Other park improvements we helped to fund Groomer Bike rack Elec. To shelters We raised about $200, in 5 years and helped put on park programs 7

8 Volunteer hours cont. 8

9 We know how to party and picnic! 9

10 This is for sure my last bear joke! Friends of Mirror Lake MEMBERSHIP FORM NAME Address City, State & Zip Telephone Yearly Membership Family $15 Business $50 Gold $100 *includes a park sticker Please Mail to: FOML E10320 Fern Dell Road Baraboo, WI I/We would like to make a donation of $ to the Friends of Mirror Lake 10

11 11