Members of Friends of Carlyle Lake group participated in the U of I Extension Pollinator Pallooza event held at the Carlyle Lake Visitor Center in October. The Friends group educated the public on the Monarch butterfly’s migration, life cycle, and importance of native flowers and milkweed. Those who visited the booth received milkweed to take home and plant. In the photo are Friends of Carlyle Lake director Peggy Hilmes and president Kim Hammel. A group looking to create more partnerships with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Carlyle Lake is seeking to continue to grow.
The Friends of Carlyle Lake work in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Carlyle Lake Project to foster environmental stewardship and enhance overall visitor experience through educational, interpretive services.
They seek to develop educational materials and experiences for public enjoyment. An example of that is a new informative panel to be placed in the General Dean Recreation Area for the community to utilize during the height of bald eagle season.
"Our purpose is to help the Corps provide educational exhibits and also partnerships through grants to get special projects at Carlyle Lake," president Kim Hammel said.
The Friends of Carlyle Lake also have partnered with the U.S Army Corps of Engineers Carlyle Lake Project to purchase shirts for park rangers to hand out as a reward to lake visitors who are wearing life jackets. The "I got caught wearing my life jacket at Carlyle Lake" campaign encourages swimmers, boaters and other types of outdoor water recreationalist, that visit Carlyle Lake, to always wear a life jacket when on or near the water.
The Friends of Carlyle Lake also purchased an educational panel on eagles that will go at the General Dean Bridge. They are working on a viewing scope for people who stop in to see the eagles but don't have binoculars. They will get the viewing scope as soon as they get the funds.
When Hammel worked for the Corps of Engineers, the lake had a cooperating association. When they had the visitors center, when it first opened after it burned down, there was a gift shop there. They piggy-backed on a cooperating association from Shelbyville and they provided all of the merchandise that went into the gift shop.
Carlyle never really had a friends group of its own. About three years before Hammel retired, she thought Carlyle Lake really needed a friends group and then worked that into a cooperative association with the Corps of Engineers.
The group has slowly been working on getting things together and are at the point where they are accepting memberships from individuals and businesses.
Hammel said they had a great group that helped them with the 50th anniversary. That is the people she went back to, to get the Friends of Carlyle Lake started. The 50th anniversary was part of the partners that provided funding for the outdoor classroom that is behind the Carlyle Lake Visitors Center. That was a handshake agreement.
When the Corps of Engineers do hand shake agreements, they need partners. So the Friends of Carlyle Lake want to be a partner and provide something for the agreements.
A lot of the funding that the Corps of Engineers have goes to maintaining the facilities they have at Carlyle Lake and there is not much room for special projects and new things that come into Carlyle Lake.
"By having partners, like the Friends of Carlyle Lake, to work with we can help get different things at Carlyle Lake," Hammel said.
They have been doing educational programs such as the Magnificent Monarchs program on May 30 and the backyard birding program on June 6. Both of those programs were at the Carlyle Lake Visitors Center outdoor classroom amphitheater.
They will be having live animal presentations in August or September.
The Friends of Carlyle Lake will have the great bottlecap bike race at 9 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 13, at the Carlyle Lake Visitor Center.
The great bottlecap bike race is a hunt on bikes to find and collect bottlecaps by accomplishing challenges. It starts and ends at the Carlyle Lake Visitor Center. Solo bikers or teams of two are given clues to create their own course throughout Carlyle Lake and the City of Carlyle to get through 10 checkpoint challenges in a race to complete in under three hours.
Participants who get back in time with all 10 bottlecaps will receive a six pack of assorted Excel bottled soda and a chance to win more prizes. Electric bikes are welcome to participate.
To register, go to runsignup. com.
Hammel said the bike race is a very unique event and she did a similar one in St. Louis.
Also on the Friends of Carlyle Lake board with Hammel are vice president Cheri Mansfield, secretary Kris Lowe, treasurer Mike Hilmes, and directors Lori Jansen and Peggy Hilmes.
"This type of a group can really benefit in the long run," Hammel said. "There are bigger projects that are just hard for the Corps of Engineers to do, so with these handshake projects if you get partners to volunteer, fund materials and the Corps puts in some funding and then you put it in to see if you can get the handshake partnership in the headquarters and get more money in. That is how we are able to do those projects."
For more information about Friends of Carlyle Lake, call 618-980-8539 or e-mail friends
