Potawatomi Wildlife Park held its annual banquet on Saturday, updates park patrons on what’s next for PWP
On Saturday, Potawatomi Wildlife Park (PWP) held its annual fundraiser banquet at the Back Forty Sporting Clays and Banquet Center. The event was attended by community members, park users, and donors. They were treated to dinner, live music, and a presentation about the park’s past, present, and future.
Park Manager Lacey Pfeiffer touched on the park’s past. In July 2, 1979 Vernon Romine passed away. In his Will, he left an estate of 151 acres of property to be left for the public to be used for recreational activities that were open free of charge for education, fun, and for the community. The grand opening of the park occurred on June 1987. Since then, there have been three park managers prior to Pfeiffer: Roger Still from May 1984 to June 1991, Michael Stephan from July 1991 to May 2020, and Sharon Stephan from 2020 to 2022.
“Because of all the park managers, the boards, the volunteers, and especially our donors we now have an established park system with five miles of trails, a one/three/five hiking. You can go on multiple nature hikes. We have a dark sky. We also have kayak opportunities, a visitor center, and much, much more that we hope you all will connect with,” said Pfeiffer.
She added that the park has facilities that the community can utilize.
Pfeiffer then took a moment to recognize Mike and Sharon Stephan. “Many of you know who Mike and Sharon were. They managed the park together for about 30 years. They helped build that park with the board and volunteers from the ground up. and we are so appreciative. In 2020, Mike passed away from cancer and in 2022 his wife passed away from a long battle of cancer. So as you can imagine, our park was left with a huge hole. and that left the board and the HR Committee in a huge place to figure out where do we go next.”
Pfeiffer handed the microphone over to J.H. Northrop, board member, to speak about the search for the next park manager.
according to Northrop, there were five candidates. Out of those candidates, the committee selected Pfeiffer and she became the new park manager on May 16, 2022. Pfeiffer is a lifelong Bourbon resident, graduated from Triton High School, has a Bachelor’s Degree in Tourism, was the director of operations at amish acres, event manager at Goshen College, associate director of Enrollment Operations at Goshen College.
Pfeiffer then explained what they’ve been doing at the park since her hiring. “The board and I came together and decided on some focuses that we wanted to accomplish in my first year.”
The first focus was to clean up the park and taking inventory of the resources to determine the park’s abilities and needs. The second focus was to build an online presence. They’ve launched a new website, potawatomiwildlifepark.com, and have become more active on social media. The third focus was that they wanted to show value to the community.
“I’m from this com
munity and when I was little I did not know about this park. And I don’t want any kid growing up not knowing about Potawatomi Wildlife Park and the opportunities they have,” she said.
The first event that the park held was a Father’s Day event. “We had 250 people come out to that first event. Since then, we hosted free monthly community events every single month. And adding in February, which we just finished, we’ve had over 1,000 visitors come in just those community events. Which has been amazing. And it’s been a lot of new visitors which we’re very excited about,” she said.
The fourth focus is to get to know the park’s visitors and donors more and to learn what motivates them to visit and donate. One way of doing that, the park has installed a new check in process that gathers certain information that will help the park apply for grants. Those grants would be to help fund building more activities in the park.
The fifth focus was in partnership with the park’s board and a local Boy Scout. “We’re working on the Michael and Sharon Stephan Visitor Center.” She went on to say that Mike had “a dream of expanding the current nature center into a visitor center and we’re going to have a grand opening this May and I hope you all come out to it. It’s going to be incredible.”
The sixth focus was to work with the current board and recruit new board members that would collaborate and help move PWP into the future. “Since May, we have brought on five new board members, one of those being our youth member, our very first youth member.”
The board members include: Mark Espich, Weston Rettinger, Larry D. Beeson, Tana Beeson, Jeffrey Klinefelter, Tim Gochenour, J.H. Northrop, Mandy Bailey Nifong, Wyatt Stephan, River Watson, Keith Mcintire, and Alex Gaughan.
Board Member Wyatt Stephan talked about where PWP is going. “Our vision is to be a thriving community hub that fosters connections through nature, history, and recreational opportunities for all. So, we know where we’re going, but how do we get there? A strategic plan helps to fill that gap by outlining the steps that we’re going to take to achieve that vision.”
Stephan stated that the strategic plan is currently in the works and will be ready for public view in a few months.
After the presentation, there was a live auction of 15 different baskets filled with a variety of items donated from local businesses and organizations. About $4,700 was raised from the auction. The highest auctioned item was the “Cozy Night Night” Basket which included a handmade quilt donated by Amber Van Ness from Bourbon, a handmade Charcuterie Board donated by John Vanderweele from Argos, fresh ground coffee and mug donated by The French Press Coffee Co, and a $25 Bourbon Street Pizza gift certificate donated from Bourbon Street Pizza. That item was sold at $550.
For more information about PWP, visit their website listed above or their Facebook or Instagram pages.