Not Just for Kids Storytelling
Internationally known storyteller Joseph Bruchac will perform at Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site (opens in a new tab) on Sunday, August 7 at 6:00pm as part of the annual Not Just for Kids Storytelling series. His performance will take place outdoors in front of the Schoharie Crossing Visitor Center. The show will move indoors in case of rain. Guests are invited to chat and enjoy refreshments after the show. The event is free to the public.
For over 30 years Joseph Bruchac has been creating poetry, short stories, novels, anthologies and music that reflect his Abenaki heritage and Native American Traditions. As a professional teller of traditional tales of the Adirondacks and the Native peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, he has performed widely throughout the United. He has been a featured performer at such events as the British Storytelling festival and the National Storytelling festival in Jonesboro Tennessee. He is the author of more than 120 books for children and adults and has received numerous awards for his work.
The Not Just for Kids Storytelling series continues throughout August and into September. The following artists will be part of the series: Regi Carpenter, Aug. 14, Lyn Ford, Aug. 21, Tim Lowry, Aug. 28 and Margaret French, Sept. 11.
Wildlife Wednesday Walk
Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site will host environmental educator and author Anita Sanchez for a Wildlife Wednesday plant program on August 10th at 6pm. This walk will explore different areas of the historic site, identify both common and uncommon flowers, and discuss their interrelationships with wildlife, especially birds and butterflies. Sanchez will also talk about how people have used plants throughout history for medicine, food, and magic.
The walk will take place along the banks of Schoharie Creek and on historic site trails, which were formerly the towpath for the Erie Canal. The program will meet outside the Visitor Center at 129 Schoharie Street, Fort Hunter. There is a $3.00 suggested donation.
Anita Sanchez worked as an environmental educator for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation at education centers across the state. She now is a free-lance educator, providing programs for schools, libraries, museums, botanical gardens, and arboreta. Also a successful author and champion of unloved plants, she has written, “The Teeth of the Lion: The Story of the Beloved and Despised Dandelion” and most recently, “Leaflets Three, Let it Be! The Story of Poison Ivy”.
Music Healer
Come learn the healing power of music with author Robin Russell Gaiser, a Certified Music Practitioner, in the Enders House at Schoharie Crossing on Saturday, August 13th from 6:30-8:30pm.
The author will be discussing the power of music as well as other topics in her book, “Musical Morphine: Transforming Pain One Note at a Time.” Gaiser is a trained specialist who provides therapeutic music to the ill, the elderly, and the dying in hospital critical care units and hospice settings. She tailors her live, acoustic music to the needs of each patient, offering a centering, often profoundly spiritual respite for them and their families, caregivers, and friends from the pain, fear, and confusion that frequently accompany the complicated process of dying. 
She earned her B.A. in English at The College of William and Mary, where she also sang and played with a folk rock group, both on campus and in venues in Richmond, Virginia, and Washington, DC. After graduation she taught writing and literature in Fairfax County, VA; then, while raising her family, she gave private lessons in guitar and dulcimer and performed publicly under the auspices of the Fairfax County Council of the Arts. She also sang in classical choirs and joined The Mill Run Dulcimer Band, recording seven albums now included in the Smithsonian collection. With her children grown, she earned an M.A. in psychology from Marymount University and worked as a guidance counselor for eight years. After relocating to upstate New York and becoming caregiver—and bedside musician—for her dying father, Robin enrolled in a certification program for therapeutic musicians. As a Certified Music Practitioner (CMP), she is trained to provide live, bedside, one-on-one acoustic music to critically and chronically ill, elderly, and dying patients.
Pisgah Press and Talking Book, will release print and audio versions of Gaisers’ work this summer. For more on her work, visit: www.robingaiser.com (opens in a new tab)
The Enders House is located on Schoharie Street in Fort Hunter, NY 12069.
For information about these events and more, please call the Visitor Center at (518) 829-7516, email SchoharieCrossing@parks.ny.gov (opens in a new tab) , or visit the Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site (opens in a new tab) Facebook page.