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Wildwood Honors Notables for Contributions at 100th Anniversary Gala
On, October 18, 2007, The Friends were delighted to host Wildwood Lake’s 100th Anniversary Gala at the Sheraton Harrisburg Hershey. This night featured special recognition of individuals who have gone above and beyond to help make Wildwood Lake Sanctuary the entity it is today through time, talent, and monetary donations. Commissioner Jeffrey Haste was invited to be the Master of Ceremony for the evening&rsqo;s events. John Greenleaf and Dr. William Anderson introduced the honorees who were each presented with a Certificate of Appreciation, their own Memorial Brick for placement in the Memorial Gardens at Wildwood Lake Sanctuary, a Proclamation from the County Commissions, and a special HERSHEY’S Chocolate piece to sweeten the evenings gathering.
The Friends will be forever grateful to each of the honorees and sincerely thank them for their personal contributions to making this 215-acre park the fantastic entity it is today.
Rebecca Stabler
An Adams County native, Rebecca grew up in farm country appreciating the beauty of God’s Creation. Attending Penn State and majoring in Parks and Recreation - Outdoor Interpretation led her to a career in Environmental Education that has lasted for twenty seven years. A Masters in Education from Millersville helped to round out the understanding of what educators need from an environmental program.
During her ten years spent with DCPR at Wildwood Lake Sanctuary, Rebecca was the Environmental Education Coordinator, Head Naturalist and Assistant Director of the Olewine Nature Center. She worked with others to envision the development of the park into a more accessible educational resource. She walked the wetlands to layout the board walks, researched the history of Wildwood from the era of the City Beautiful Movement to the present, and led the development of program and exhibit aspects of the Olewine Nature Center.
Currently Rebecca is Director of Lutheran Memorial Camp in central Ohio, providing environmental education for school children and Creation stewardship experiences for their summer youth church camp.
Benjamin Olewine, III
Ben Olewine has seen Wildwood through many phases. He grew up in Harrisburg during the 1920s and 30s and remembers his parents bringing the family for picnics at Wildwood Park almost every weekend. During the 1940s and 50s, his family lived two blocks from Wildwood and it was again a favorite family destination with his own children enjoying ice skating and boating activities on a regular basis.
Since 1976 Olewine Distributors, later Sysco Foods, was located across Industrial Road from Wildwood which provided a welcome lunchtime break or after work relaxation for watching birds and other wildlife. During all of these stages Wildwood held special meaning for him, then later for his family.
When he heard that the Friends of Wildwood and Dauphin County were planning to build a nature center at Wildwood he was immediately interested. After discussing it with his family, the decision was made to become the lead donor on the project. Again, in 2002 Mr. Olewine stated that his donation for the Benjamin Olewine III Nature Center at Wildwood Lake Sanctuary was, “the most gratifying thing I have done in the community.”
Allen Marshall
Volunteering at Wildwood Lake Sanctuary has been an important part of Allen Marshall’s life for the past fourteen years. For him, it has been exciting and rewarding to work with both staff and volunteers in a very important endeavor.
As a member of the Natural Resources Committee, Allen has taken satisfaction in being able to support the naturalists, since environmental education is such a vital aspect of being a volunteer. He is very passionate about Wildwood and would do anything that needs to be done to make sure the nature center and the sanctuary are fully functional and user friendly. Allen credits Wildwood’s success to the wonderful group of volunteers that has committed so much energy, time, creativity, and love into the park.
Allen had no idea that his life would be as full and enriched as it is. He feel blessed to be associated with so many wonderful people.
Richard Angino
Richard Angino began his career in civil litigation by joining Solomon Hurwitz Law Firm, which became Angino & Rovner Law Firm. Over the years he has gained recognition as one the area’s leading attorneys. He has been listed as a “Best Lawyer in America for Personal Injury and Civil Litigation” from 1983 to 2007. He was also named one of “Pennsylvania’s Super Lawyers” for 2005, which is awarded to only the top five percent of Pennsylvania Lawyers. Richard is a published author and has lectured to many organizations.
In addition to being a member of many legal associations, Richard also dedicates a great deal of time to civil organizations. These include the American Horticultural Society where he served as the Vice President for two years, sat on the Board of Directors for nine years and has been on the President’s Council since 1985. Other organizations include the Leukemia Society of America, the Governor’s Residence Preservation Committee and the Friends of Wildwood Lake, where he served as President of the Board of Directors from 1989 to 1996.
Clifford Dillmann
Clifford Dillmann was the co-chair of the Coalition Against Ruining the Environment, Inc. in the early 1970s, a coalition including groups as diverse as the Pennsylvania Young Democrats, the Harrisburg NAACP, the Dauphin County Federation of Sportsman, and members of both the local and college communities. Three years litigation in Federal Court resulted in the relocation of US Route 22/322 away from the main area of Wildwood Park and the HACC Campus, enabling park development and preservation of the campus from traffic impact. Years later Clifford served on the board that was to create Wildwood Lake Nature Center, and he chaired the building committee for center’s design that stressed green alternatives.
Today, Clifford is a professor of psychology at Harrisburg Area Community College.
E. Arnold Mahey
Arnold first became interested in conservation while a Boy Scout in Allegheny County in the 1940s. He earned his teaching degree at Clarion State, and upon completion of college he joined the Boy Scouts of America with the Valley Forge Council in suburban Philadelphia. Arnold held many positions including District Scout Executive for the Keystone Area Council.
In 1966, Arnold heard about an outdoor education program being started by the Harrisburg City schools and for the first time, used his teaching degree to teach biology. A few years later, all of these programs became known as “Environment Education” and Arnold taught these programs at various outdoor centers until he retired in 1985. He continued teaching environmental education through the development of an environmental education program that traveled to the various city playgrounds.Arnold has volunteered a great deal of time for various environmental organizations, including Wildwood Lake Sanctuary. He worked at the front desk for seven years and represented the sanctuary at Green Belt meetings. For the past six years, Arnold has served on the board of The Friends of Wildwood Lake. As treasurer for four years, he and the board invested assets to earn over $150,000 for the sanctuary. For this, Arnold would like to thank Jeff Goldsmith for his excellent advice as a financial advisor.
C. Ted Lick
Ted Lick is the past president of Harrisburg Paper Company and was a consultant for the Scott Paper Company. He was also Chairman of the Advisory Board of the 3M Company, President of the Rotary Club, and is a Paul Harris Fellow member of Rotary International as well as numerous other organizations.
Through the years, Ted has dedicated a great deal of time to the local community. He is a past director of the Tri-County Crippled Children’s Association, a past Chairman of the Board of the Salvation Army, and twice President of Goodwill Industries of Greater Harrisburg. At the 1996 Founders Day, Harrisburg Area Community College (HACC) named their new conference center the C. Ted Lick Wildwood Conference Center in his honor.
In 1999, Ted provided a donation through HACC to build a state of the art educational lab inside of the Benjamin Olewine III Nature Center at Wildwood Lake. He wanted to make sure that the college students had a sanctuary where they could go for educational purposes. Students and park-goers have truly enjoyed this addition to the nature center.
Ted is currently the Chairman of the fundraising campaign for the beautiful new Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art outside Millersburg, Pennsylvania.
Robert & Gail Gaynes
Robert and Gail Gaynes came to Harrisburg in 1962. Robert is a native of Canton, Ohio and Gail is from Philadelphia. Robert was owner of Harrisburg Healthcare and has given a lifetime of service to the greater Harrisburg community. He has served as the president of the Greater Harrisburg Chamber of Commerce and chairperson of the United Way of the Capital Region. Robert is also active in the Jewish Community Center. Robert and Gail Gaynes became interested in the development of Wildwood Lake Sanctuary when they realized that there was not a structured learning environment for children to study nature. They felt that if one child could be exposed to what nature has to offer, they would be satisfied. Their commitment was worthwhile.
Robert and Gail have spent many memorable hours learning about the flora and fauna at Wildwood, and wanted to have the younger generation experience what they had enjoyed over the years. The nature center has met their expectations, by giving people of all ages a place to enjoy nature in a wetland setting. Also, it has enabled people with disabilities a place to enjoy nature and socialize with family and friends. Wildwood Lake Sanctuary has accomplished everything that Robert and Gail have envisioned.
Clifford Jones
Clifford Jones came to Harrisburg in 1963 to join the state government and quickly found Wildwood Lake Sanctuary was a wonderful place to bird. Over the years, the sanctuary has been his favorite and closest birding spot. Many times he has taken people and groups to see their first Horned Owl in the hollow tree on the east side of the lake. A special trip for Clifford was when Governor Thornburgh asked him to take his wife’ mother birding. She was a true novice, but Wildwood came through and he found an American Bittern for her among the reeds. She did not realize how uncommon that was. Clifford hasn’t seen one there since that day.
Clifford helped Jan LeBlanc raise funds by identifying and soliciting donors for Wildwood. He truly believes that without the generosity of Ben Olewine, there would be no nature center and no boardwalks.
Clifford currently serves on multiple advisory boards and commissions, mostly in non-profit areas of health, conservation, culture and education. Among them are the Nature Conservancy, the Susquehanna Area Regional Airport Authority, Ecumenical Community, and the Modern Transit Partnership.
Jan LeBlanc
For twenty-five years Jan LeBlanc was employed by the Dauphin County Parks and Recreation Department as a landscape designer and thereafter as the Director of Special Projects. In the latter role Jan worked with various non-profit support groups to raise funds for various parks and recreation initiatives, the most notable of which was collaboration with The Friends of Wildwood Lake Nature Center, Inc. to raise $4.3 million to underwrite the construction of the Benjamin Olewine III Nature Center at Wildwood Lake Sanctuary.
This project included funding many site amenities such as the one-mile boardwalk system that traverses this exceptional valued wetland, comfort facilities, parking, landscaping, and interpretative exhibits. Ms. LeBlanc also worked with the environmental education staff and the design professionals to program the spaces required in the nature center and was instrumental in evaluating design details, selecting finishes, and providing construction observation services so as to ensure high quality in the final product.
Ms. LeBlanc is now employed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and is serving as the Acting Executive Director of the Bureau of Facilities Management in the Department of General Services.