by Deb Twigg, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Susquehanna River Archaeological Center of Native Indian Studies (SRAC) located at 345 Broad Street, Waverly, NY
“Einstein and Religion" by Ron Palmer
Tuesday, December 3rd
from 6:30 - 7:30pm
at SRAC, 345 Broad Street Waverly, NY
To many, science and religion seem to be as far apart as night and day. But what did the greatest scientist to ever live think about religion? Attend SRAC's next “History’s Mysteries” presentation on Tuesday December 3rd from 6:30 – 7:30pm to find out as Dr. Ron Palmer brings the loveable scientist to life in this one-man show asking us to join Albert Einstein as he muses on religion, spiritualism, and pacifism.
This presentation is sure to be enlightening ,entertaining and a “don’t miss” this holiday season (and on the seventh night of Hanukkah!)
A general admission donation of $6 for adults and $4 for SRAC members is requested.(Free admission for all students everyday at SRAC.) Free admission to the SRAC exhibit hall is included in this donation. SRAC is located at 345 Broad Street in Waverly, NY. For more information, visit www.SRACenter.org, email info@SRAcenter.org, or call the Center at 607-565-7960.
(WAVERLY, NY) The Susquehanna River Archaeological Center of Native American Studies (SRAC) located at 345 Broad Street in Waverly, NY recently hosted the entire fourth grade for the Waverly Area School District as a part of their American Indian studies curriculum. The field trip for over 125 students was broken up into a morning and afternoon session which allowed the five classes to take in the field trip in smaller groups. Each session included 4 stations to include “Hunting the Woolly Mammoth” with Ted Keir, “Native American Children Stories” by Jack Andrus, “Early Trade” with Dick Cowles, and even a rotation through the SRAC gift shop which is always popular with the kids.
SRAC Co-Founder Deb Twigg commented, “Doing field trips for the 4th graders in the area is one of the highlights for us. When the kids start coming in the door and Jack is dressed in Native American attire and pounding the drum, it still gets me every time.”
After the students finished the stations, they were gathered back in the SRAC lecture hall where they played the “Stump the Chump” contest where each team tries to stump the other teams on questions about what they learned throughout the event. This year the winning team won the opportunity to be involved with a Christmas art contest that will take place on Broad Street Waverly’s storefronts in tandem with this year’s Tinsel and Lights celebration by getting one of SRAC’s front windows to paint their scene on.
Twigg added, “Every year we try to do something bigger and better for the kids, and this year by adding the Christmas scene opportunity we hopefully are getting the sense of community added to what they learn at our field trips at SRAC.”
2013 is winding down, but their is still time to get some tax deductions while supporting a a great cause!
Please consider giving what you can to the Susquehanna River Archaeological Center in 2013 – Our survival depends on you.
Ways to Give:
- Monetary Gifts
- Employer Matching Gifts
- Items for Resale*
*SRAC is selling donated antiques in the Crooked River Co-op and other donated items at an upcoming tag sale! Donate items anytime - it's tax deductible and allows us to keep doing what we do in the community!
Mail donations to:
SRAC Giving Campaign
PO Box 12 Sayre, Pa 18840
Thank you for whatever you can do!
SRAC is a 501c3 and donations to our organization are tax deductible. Need more answers? Please contact Deb Twigg, Executive Director and Co-Founder of SRAC at 607-727-3111
The migration paths that may have brought people across the Bering Strait Land Bridge. Photo: State Historical Society of North Dakota
More than 15,000 years ago the first people came to the Americas, walking across the Bering Strait on a land bridge from Siberia, or maybe sailing east along the coast. These people spread down and through North, Central and South America, with early civilizations like the Clovis people taking root. As the theory goes, early Americans originated from a small group of people that made it over from Asia. But when researchers dig into the genes of some Native American people, unexpected genes, genes with a European heritage, jump out.
The common assumption is that these genes were picked up, mixed into the gene pool from European colonialists. But new preliminary research, reported on by Science Magazine, tells a different story. Some early Americans came not from Asia, it seems, but by way of Europe.
From the complete nuclear genome of a Siberian boy who died 24,000 years ago—the oldest complete genome of a modern human sequenced to date. His DNA shows close ties to those of today’s Native Americans. Yet he apparently descended not from East Asians, but from people who had lived in Europe or western Asia. The finding suggests that about a third of the ancestry of today’s Native Americans can be traced to “western Eurasia,” with the other two-thirds coming from eastern Asia.
(WAVERLY, NY) "Underwater Archaeology in the Finger Lakes" will be presented by archaeologist Ron Heines at the Susquehanna River Archaeological Center at 345 Broad Street in Waverly, NY on Tuesday November 5th, from 6:30 - 7:30 pm.
With over 50 years experience in underwater archaeology in the Finger Lakes region, Ron Heines will take us back to a time of the great ships like the "Half Moon" of Henry Hudson to the times of the "Horse Drawn Navy" - otherwise known as canal ships. Both historical and archaeological in nature, this presentation will show us the remains of these great ships now found covered in leopard mussels at the bottom of our great lakes.
A general admission donation of $6 is appreciated from the general public with students and SRAC members always attending SRAC events for free. Visitors are invited to come early as there is limited seating for this event, and to take time to visit the SRAC Exhibit Hall for free before the presentation. A general admission donation is requested of $6, with SRAC members $4, and students free.
We want to thank Polly Steele for her generous donation of her Duncan Piphe dining room set. It is available to be looked at the Teaoga Building across the street (firehouse) and is also being advertised at the Crooked River Co-op.
We hope to sell that set at $1,200 and the mirror separately at $400. The buyer can claim this as a donation to SRAC too. Please share this with anyone who might be interested! Thanks!
I am sorry to report that recently, SRAC lost one of their own. Mary Ann Taylor was a dear friend to all of us at SRAC, as well as a long time board member and volunteer. In fact she was the one who took the gift shop under her wing and made it work, while I was still working full time at the hospital...
Mary Ann was one of those people that although having tough times of her own, was dedicated to having fun and making people find the humor in just about anything...She would go to the Salvation Army regularly to find items for SRAC to use for table toppers and displays, and while she was there would find outrageous items for herself, like gold glittered sneakers that she would wear quite often and as many of those singing, animated toys - like Santa's reindeer on a motorcycle or whatever that she could find....
She also was loaded with artistic talent - able to sing, play instruments, paint, sew, sculpt, and create jewelry with ease, she even gave jewelry making classes and was always eager to create something for us to sell in the gift shop to raise funds.
But more than all of her talents and work she did at SRAC, Mary was our friend and you cannot imagine the horror we felt when she went last February for a seemingly routine procedure and spent the rest of her life trying to recover from it...Over that time we would visit, send her cards and pictures, and would call her when we had group meetings when she was able to talk just to try to raise her spirits...And recently we really did think that she was going to make it...as she was using a walker and was finally having surgery to close wounds that were left open since February....
You can imagine our heart break when we received the news that she passed away last Saturday...
Today the SRAC family will meet and go to Mary Ann's services at the Waverly Methodist Church and mourn the loss of our dear friend. We had these cards made for the services for everyone to have and remember her and what a special person she was in our lives. Rest in peace dear friend -in our suffering your loss, your suffering has ended.
Mary Keene (left) Mary Ann Taylor (right)
This time of year I think about how Halloween was one of Mary Ann's holidays. In fact she talked us into hosting several Halloween events over the years - and she would make sure to dress up in the most incredible costumes that she made from scratch usually.
Always one to laugh and make fun, here is a video she loved that we did years ago that sums up our silliness and love for one another. Happy Early Halloween from the SRAC Gang with this video that Mary Ann "starred" in in 2009 ! (Cast: Dr. Frankenstein: MaryAnne Taylor, Frankenstein: Ted Keir, The Bride of Frankenstein: Susan Fogel, Wolfman: Dick Cowles, Dracula: Tom Vallilee.)
