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Big day for Wild Center

TUPPER LAKE – The Wild Center celebrated the arrival of two highly anticipated visitors Monday.

The second was U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, who that afternoon took his first tour of the new Wild Walk, an elevated trail that immerses visitors in the sights, sounds and scenic views of the forest surrounding the museum.

The first was Keira Lau, an elementary schooler from Long Island who became the center’s 100,000th visitor of the year Monday morning. It’s the first time annual attendance has hit the 100,000 mark since the museum’s first year, 2006, according to spokeswoman Tracey Legat – and there are four months left in 2015.

The Wild Walk opened July 4, and more than 50,000 people visited the museum in July alone, Legat said.

Senator

“(Schumer has) been a longtime friend of The Wild Center, and I was so thrilled when he said ‘yes’ to come and visit us so we could sort of show off our new addition to the campus,” Wild Center Executive Director Stephanie Ratcliffe said as she introduced Schumer to a crowd of onlookers at the top of the center’s giant birds’ nest, one of several attractions found on the walk. “We’ve been waiting for the last couple of weeks to hit our 100,000th (person) in 2015, and we had that this morning at 11:05.

“We want to thank everybody who made that possible, especially I Love NY, who really helped promote this everywhere.”

Schumer visited the center to get a firsthand look at some of the benefits of the nearly $700,000 the federal government has invested in the museum over the past two years. He is also working to secure a $75,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’ Rural Business Development Grant program to help the center pay for completing the Wild Walk, according to a press release. Ratcliffe previously told the Enterprise it will cost about $1.5 million to finish the attraction.

Ratcliffe led Schumer and his staff on a tour of the Wild Walk, explaining its many attractions and answering questions. Along the way, Schumer stopped to talk to several visitors, asking them where they were from and if they were enjoying the museum. After reaching the birds’ nest, Schumer addressed a crowd of about 50 onlookers, thanking Ratcliffe and the 91 members of her staff, Tupper Lake village Mayor Paul Maroun and Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism CEO Jim McKenna for their efforts.

“It’s not only something that’s just great for people to see, but it creates a lot of jobs here in the North Country,” Schumer said. “I was here on Thanksgiving eve in 2000. We had a whole bunch of community meetings about people’s dreams for this region, and the last meeting I had was with somebody who is here today, Betsy Lowe.” Lowe is the primary founder of The Wild Center.

“We talked about this, building a natural history museum in the Adirondacks. It was just an image in someone’s mind. Now, I’ve heard lots of grand plans in people’s minds in the years that I’ve been a senator, but rarely do they blossom into something as beautiful and wonderful as this as it has at The Wild Center. The minute I saw Betsy, I said, ‘This is going to happen.’ She had the enthusiasm and the decency and the honor and the niceness, and so I’ve been committed (from) the very beginning to doing my little help with federal grants and things like that to help The Wild Center grow, and today, to come back and see it in its glory, having read about it in all the national newspapers and magazines even before I came – I’d been here when they were breaking ground, when they were building, when they were doing this, but this is my first time when it has come to fruition – it’s great.”

Schumer cited the center’s Wild Walk, Teacher Training Initiatives and Community Maple Project as proof the government’s investment is paying off. In a press release, he said the museum’s attendance is up 400 percent this year, and he vowed to continue to support it.

“I’m going to keep doing this,” he said. “As long as I’m senator, I want to assure the people here I’m going to continue fighting for funding for the Wild Walk. It’s just such a great thing.”

Schumer last visited Tupper Lake in August 2014, touring downtown and discussing revitalization efforts.

100,000th visitor

Keira Lau of Centerport, Long Island, became the museum’s 100,000th visitor of the year on Monday, with a little unwitting help from her 5-year-old brother.

“Torin got stuck in the bathroom, and we waited while my dad jimmied the lock,” she said, according to a Wild Center press release. “That delayed us getting in line, but I guess it worked out since we wouldn’t have been the 100,000th visitor.”

The Lau family visited after seeing an I Love NY television commercial featuring The Wild Center. They went so far as to rewind the DVR to write down the Web address before looking it up online.

“We wanted a vacation that didn’t cost an arm and a leg and that didn’t take forever to get to,” mother Barbara, Lau said in the release. She and her husband Chris have three children: Ella, Keira and Torin.

The Wild Center had held a contest on its Facebook page asking when they thought the 100,000th visit would occur. Erin Duval of Crown Point won and will receive Tupper Tapper maple syrup as her prize.

Managing Editor Peter Crowley contributed to this report.

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