Recently, a group of local village, town and state park recreation departments received local and state level recognition for their joint effort in putting on the annual Wicked Woods event, which occurs at Green Lakes State Park each October.
The Wicked Woods event won the “Special Event” category at the 2016 Central New York Recreation & Park Society awards at Highland Forest on March 10, and went on to win the same category at the state level from the New York State Recreation & Park Society, which was held April 17.
“It is a great example of how several agencies have come together to create a wonderful, free event for members of our communities,” said Peggy Kenyon, Town of Manlius Recreation Department director. Kenyon submitted the nomination to enter Wicked Woods into the awards consideration. “It felt great to receive the award. [It’s] a nice bonus for all the hard work everyone puts in.”
The Wicked Woods event at Green Lakes is done as a joint effort of the Town of Manlius Recreations Department, Village of Manlius Parks and Recreation, Village of Fayetteville Recreation Commission, the Village of Minoa and Green Lakes State Park.
The event has been held for four years, and activities include trick-or-treating from local businesses set up along the beach at Green Lakes, bounce houses, miniature golfing on the beach, crafts in the old administrative building, face painters, a haunted trail at Tulip Hill, fire entertainers and a bonfire on the beach at dusk. The free event has always drawn large crowds and in 2015, at least 600 people were in attendance at the event, said Kenyon, and a total of about 50 volunteers from various community groups are needed to make the event the success it is.
Additionally, Honesty Rohrer, a park worker for Green Lakes State Park, won the Program Leader award at the March 10 CNYRPS award ceremony. The criteria for someone to receive this award is someone who “displays outstanding leadership qualities in a recreation program and shows innovation and an enthusiastic approach in running consistently successful on-going programs.”
“Green Lakes has always been a beautiful park and now it is being programmed in so that more and more families can experience that beauty and connect in a fun and often times educational way,” said Kenyon in her nomination letter for Rohrer.
Rohrer, a resident of Pulaski, has been working on and off seasonally at NYS Parks since 2007 at Chittenango Falls and Green Lakes. In April 2013, she started working at Green Lakes year-round and has been there ever since, working on organizing the event and recreational programming for the park.
“I had no idea that I was nominated for this award, let alone that I had won. Everyone had done a great job keeping the secret so I thought I was just at the ceremony to celebrate Wicked Woods,” said Rohrer. “I feel very grateful to everyone who contributed to my nomination. I truly appreciate all of their support and I am very fortunate to work with such amazing people.”
