Chautauqua Wawasee regularly teams with the Syracuse-Wawasee Historical Museum to provide programs focused on local (Syracuse-area) history, typically related to archaeology, Native American artifacts, and people. Feedback Forms are provided at these events so we can receive feedback on program quality, speaker quality, etc. including requests for desired future programs. Our most frequent request is to provide More Programs on Local History. This is what prompted the Wawasee Walk Down Memory Lane project.

The 2023 program will attract an audience to view three historic videos:

1. A 1937 video of someone cruising in a boat videotaping the Wawasee shoreline and lakefront cottages as they cruise
2. A promotional video for the Spink Wawasee Hotel (built in 1926, closed in 1947)
3. A 1957 video of the Chinese Gardens and cottage on Wawasee

After the showing, attendees will be invited to share their memories via an Open Microphone; these will be recorded and limited to 5 minutes at this venue, but invited for a longer session at the Syracuse-Wawasee Historic Museum to record the individual’s memories as oral history. The event’s promotion will discuss the need for additional “home movies” that might be stored in attics, closets, basements, etc. This will be requested at the event too, with the hope that more historic video material will emerge. The Syracuse-Wawasee Historical Museum will borrow (take temporary possession) to process materials that emerge. With the owner’s signed approval, local home movies would be digitized and made available for public showing at phase two 2024 event.

WHEN: July 22, 2:00 – 3:30
WHERE: Syracuse Community Center

The lives of the two first ladies ranged from tedious to amusing, to very exciting.  Each adding her personal style into the Character of the Nation. In this program, the audience will join the first, First Ladies as they show how they carved the character of the new United States.

When: Saturday, June 25th at 4:30 pm

Where: Wawasee High School Auditorium

Admission: FREE!

WACF Earth Day

Love Nature? Love butterflies? This is the topic to be explored at one session of the upcoming Wawasee Area Conservancy Foundation’s Earth Day Festival on May 6th, 2023. WACF is organizing more than twenty educational, fun, hands-on programs and activities to be held outdoors at WACF Education Center south of Syracuse.

Plan to stop by the Chautauqua-Wawasee booth because they need your help to save the Monarch butterfly!

You will learn from the butterfly lady herself, Cindy Gackenheimer, Flutterby Gardens, Claypool, as she shares about the metamorphosis of a butterfly, the Monarch migration pattern this year, and practical steps you can take to help the Monarch. The booth will provide a “kid-friendly” hands-on learning
experience where participants can play a migration game. Also, a special craft is offered which involves stamping the butterfly life cycle on a take-home canvas bag, along with free pollinator seeds to plant which attracts butterflies to your garden or landscape for years to come.

Cost: Free
When: Saturday, May 6,  10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Where: Wawasee Area Conservancy Foundation, located at 11586 IN-13, south of Syracuse.

Check back here, or on Facebook for updates, or feel free to give us a call at 574-377-7543.

2022 Cliff Kindy Workshop

2022 Cliff Kindy Workshop

What if Christians had the passion for peacekeeping that warriors have for war?
Participate in an evening with author and peace-seeker Cliff Kindy, an Indiana organic farmer.
Cliff will share about his many Christian Peacemaker Team journeys (Iraq, Sudan, Iran…), and how he became part of CPTs. The workshop will explore and discuss how Christians who are passionate about peace (everywhere) can pursue the vision of peacekeeping.  Cliff’s session promises to be eye-opening and extremely moving.

Cliff’s book Resurrection Peacemaking recounts his thirty years working with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), facing violent, unjust regimes in Iraq, Colombia, Israel/Palestine, Nigeria, Mexico, and other trouble spots around the world. Cliff and other CPT volunteers have repeatedly put their lives on the line as they chose to accompany targeted and beleaguered indigenous people who were striving to end violent occupation and warfare in their own lands.
This striving is not only for far-away peoples. It is for us.

Cliff says, “Why will people be willing to risk their lives to confront violence or injustice? For me, that willingness is grounded in the gospel story of Jesus’ resurrection. For others, it will be based in love and goodness. Nonviolence for me is powered by the spirit of resurrection on Easter; it topples empires. But it also exposes the practitioner to transformation; all parties are transformed, or better, ‘plowshared’. Are we willing to nurture our imaginations and take the risks required to replace violence with nonviolence? If so, how would this change America, in terms of policing, politics, wars, family disputes, mass killings, and criminal justice?”

What: Presentation/Discussion/Workshop
When: Sept 28, 6:30-8:30pm
Where: Oakwood Resort Event Center
Cost: Free– Please REGISTER HERE for this event

Thomas Jefferson played by J.D. Sutton

Chautauqua-Wawasee is inviting you for an encounter with Thomas Jefferson the man who defined American Independence. World-renowned Jefferson re-enactor, J.D. Sutton, as 77-year-old Mr. Jefferson is retired, but still busy.  He’s looking back on his life, reflecting on his “services” to our country, the things he’s been able to accomplish as well as things left undone. And so, he’s invited you to his home, so he can explain the events of his life.

After Mr. Jefferson’s talk, join us on the lawn at Oakwood Resort at 7:30 for the annual Patriotic Pops concert. Bring a lawn chair or blanket. Stop by our tent to receive a free patriotic gift.

What: Jefferson performance by reenactor J.D. Sutton
When: June 26, 4:30 – 5:30
Where: Wawasee High School Auditorium,  Syracuse, Indiana
Tickets: Free
Follow us on Facebook or call 574-377-7543

WACF Earth Day Event

Love Nature?

“How do you know it loves you back?

Chautauqua Wawasee has a unique program for WACF’s Earth Day, April 30.  For the first time ever, Dani Tippman, Cliff Kindy and John Edgerton are collaborating to discuss a message of hope, harmony, and humility. 

10:00 – 10:50 a.m.  REMEMBRANCE: 

Water is Life; Human/Plant diversity makes us stronger. (Facilitated by Dani Tippman)

11:00 – 11:50 a.m.  DIALOGUE: 

How can we accept the coming difficulties of our distressed planet, so that we and our children can meet them with courage, empathy and resilience? (Facilitated by Cliff Kindy)

12:45 – 1:35 p.m. EARTH STORIES:    

Sharing stories about how we each are needed in the web of life, and how harmony and mutual understanding are vital to our survival. These ancient stories are now beginning to be validated by modern science. (Facilitated by John Edgerton)

 

Learn about Native American methods for plant diversification; organic farming techniques with water conservation and carbon-free methods; and ancient stories that are now beginning to be validated by modern science.  This program is free.

Chautauqua Wawasee will also have a booth where Cindy Gackenheimer of Flutterby Gardens in Claypool will share information about Monarch butterflies and how to attract them in your yard.  Free flower seeds will be available.

Earth Day

 

When: WACF’s Earth Day April 30, 10:00 – 2:00  

Where:  WACF Amphitheater