Student volunteers donate time and skills to help showcase all the MacKenzie Center has to offer
POYNETTE, Wis. - Visitors to the MacKenzie Center in Poynette will see some bright new signs and beautiful landscaping adorning the center's entrance, thanks to a dedicated group of Poynette High School students.
Poynette High School's technology education class, led by John Von Wald, worked hard this school year to sharpen their woodworking and landscaping skills while helping the MacKenzie Center update its signs. In fall 2014, the class designed and completed 10 new signs for the property, and the spring class picked up where their fall colleagues left off and designed other signs throughout the property. The projects included a new entrance sign on County Highway CS. Students from High Marq Charter School in Montello, Wis., led by Adam Brandt, designed and installed landscaping surrounding the sign.
Poynette students also installed a new storage bench for the MacKenzie Pond, and visitors can now relax near the pond and watch birds and other wildlife. The bench design includes an inscription in honor of John Hallagan, a teacher from Magee Elementary School with a deep history with the MacKenzie Center. Bench materials were funded through a donation from Magee Elementary School in honor of Hallagan.
The Department of Natural Resources MacKenzie Center, 25 miles north of Madison, offers interpretive trails, exhibits, museums, wildlife exhibit featuring animals native to Wisconsin and an arboretum with more than 100 species of trees. The center offers and programming for school and youth groups, with MacKenzie educators teaching students about a wide range of topics, from wildlife and forestry to woodworking.
To learn more about the MacKenzie Center, search the DNR website, dnr.wi.gov, for keyword "MacKenzie."