My Hometown Schools

Mary Poppins flies into Churchville-Chili CSD

Churchville-Chili Senior High School will perform the Broadway musical, Mary Poppins, this spring. Performances are at 7 p.m. on March 23, 24 and 25 and at 2 p.m. on March 26 at the ChurchvilleChili Performing Arts Center.

With more than 70 talented students participating in the cast, crew and orchestra pit and the spectacular scenery, choreography, costumes and professional-quality light and sound production, Mary Poppins will be a joy for the entire family.

The musical, based on the stories of P.L. Travers and the Walt Disney film, is the story of the Banks’ family and two children who are in desperate need of a nanny. When a mysterious Mary Poppins arrives at their door, the family finds a most peculiar answer to their dilemma. Through magical and memorable adventures, the children and grown-ups learn that “anything can happen if you let it.”

Tickets are available at www.cccsd.org/FineArts. Presale adult tickets are $10; student tickets are $8. All tickets are $15 at the Box Office on the day of the show. The CCPAC is located at 5786 Buffalo Road, Churchville. Provided information and photo

My Hometown Events

Pancakes and syrup coming to Letchworth State Park’s sugarhouse

Letchworth State Park’s nature center and sugarhouse will be center stage for the annual Maple Weekends sugaring festival and pancake breakfasts in late March.

The last two weekends in March will be Maple Weekends statewide. Festivities at Letchworth are on March 18, March 19, March 25, and March 26 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Humphrey Nature Center.

Volunteers with the Friends of Letchworth State Park preservation nonprofit will serve pancakes, butter, sausage, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, orange juice, milk, and, of course, maple syrup.

All educational activities are free. Pancake breakfast tickets will be $8, kids under age five eat free. Tickets will be available at the door and online, with proceeds to benefit Friends of Letchworth State Park projects. Follow Letchworth State Park on Facebook and Instagram (@letchworthstatepark) for announcements when breakfast tickets go on sale online.

There will be four interactive educational stations for visitors to participate in syrup making: sap collecting, traditional stone boiling, evaporator boiling in the sugarhouse, and syrup grading/tasting.

Letchworth State Park produces maple syrup mostly for educational purposes. While some of the park’s syrup will be for sale at the nature center, the syrup served with the pancake breakfasts is donated by local maple producers for Maple Weekends. Maple syrup production is one of the region’s claims to fame. According to the USDA Ag Census, Wyoming County produced 91,765 gallons of maple syrup in 2017. That is enough syrup to fill 30 concrete mixer trucks, and over 17,000 gallons more than the nexthighest maple producing county that year. Wyoming County includes the southwest- ern part of Letchworth State Park in the mid-point of the Genesee River’s roughly 160-mile valley from northwestern Pennsylvania to Lake Ontario.

The park can temporarily close some roads due to winter weather conditions. All Maple Weekends attendees should plan to use the Castile entrance to the park, 6787 Denton Corners Road, Castile, which is open year-round. Once inside the park, follow signs for the Humphrey Nature Center, about one mile south on Park Road from the Castile entrance. As usual, there will be no vehicle use fees until later in the spring.

The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation oversees more than 250 individual parks, historic sites, recreational trails, and boat launches, which were visited by a record 78 million people in 2020. For more information on any of these recreation areas, call 518-474-0456 or visit parks.ny.gov. Provided information and photos

Batavia Train Show scheduled for March 26

The Genesee Society of Model Engineers will be holding the Spring 2023 edition of the Great Batavia Train Show on Sunday, March 26, at the Richard C. Call Arena on the campus of Genesee Community College in Batavia. Show hours are from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Admission is $6 adults, $3 under age18, and free for children under 13. Parking is free, and a snack bar will be available. For 50 years, the Great Batavia Train Show has been one of the premier hobby events in Western New York. All forms of model railroad and train-related merchandise will be available. Items offered include all scales of model trains, historic railroad items, books, DVDs, and toys.

The Genesee Society of Model Engineers was founded in Batavia and has promoted the hobby of model railroading in the Western New York area for over 50 years. This not-for-profit organization is headquartered at 50 Main Street in Oakfield. In their facility above

M&T Bank, club members maintain four operating model train displays. Visitors are welcome on Tuesday evenings, and an open house is offered free to the public each December.

For information, visit www.gsme.org or email bataviatrainshow@gsme.org.

Provided information