2014 Chili Bowl Festival a Great Success

The 2014 Thornden Park Chili Bowl Festival was held on February 8th, and was a huge  success.  The event cleared a profit of over $2,100, making it the 4th-most successful CBF since the event’s inception about 20 years ago.  The cold but sunny weather helped bring out a large crowd that packed the Field House for the duration of the event.  Two television stations sent camera crews and aired stories that evening, highlighting the event and the Thornden Park Association’s work to improve the park and encourage its use.

The Chili Bowl Festival has benefitted from loyal support by many area businesses, several returning as sponsors year after year.  Gianelli Sausage donates all the ground  sausage and beef for the Syracuse and Classic Beef chilis, and Plainville Farms, despite its reduced CNY profile, ships turkey thigh meat from Pennsylvania each year for the Turkey Chili. Additional loyal business contributors for sponsorship cash and in-kind donations for raffle prizes are Geddes Federal Savings & Loan, Blue Prints Dog Studio, Cooperative   Federal Credit Union, Nancy Freeborough DVM, Pei Lin Huang, Syracuse Real Food Co-op, Anthony’s Pasta Bar, Beer Belly Deli, Coleman’s Florist, Insomnia Cookies, Ken Nichols Art, Mello Velo, Middle Ages Brewing Company, NY Bold Onions, Picasso’s Pastries, Piraino’s Country Liquors, Skytop Liquors, Solvay Bank, Symphoria, Syracuse Stage, Tops Friendly  Markets, and Wegmans.  The delicious home-brewed root beer from E. J. Wren is donated by Peter Ensminger every year. 

Thanks, also, to our generous members who bought raffle tickets & made donations!

Again this year, the CNY Disc Golf Association held their “Ice Bowl” tournament on the same day as CBF.  The two events make a great pairing showing how the park can be used throughout the year and not just in the warmer months. 

Weeping Beech

In March 2013, Thornden Park lost one of its landmarks as a wind storm toppled the park's 170-year-old weeping beech tree.

We are also seeking five to ten local artists who would be interested in creating a piece of art from the wood of this beech tree and donating it to the Park Association.

In lieu of payment, the artist would receive some of the wood for his or her personal use. The donated art will be raffled by the Thornden Park Association at the Chili Bowl Festival, the Garden Tours, and the Westcott Cultural Fair.

Cricket, Anyone?

Upstate Cricket Club   Background information Established in 2011, we are a strong group of motivated individuals from different backgrounds. Most of the enthusiasts are graduate (PhD and masters) and medical students at SUNY Upstate Medical University, but we also have post-doctoral fellows, physicians, trainee doctors, physician’s assistants at our behest. Even though cricket is traditionally a colonial game, we have many American enthusiasts who play regularly. Thus we have good mix of people not only from different educational backgrounds with both male and female participants but people from different country of origin such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, England, USA, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Jamaica etc.   Our professional commitments permit us to play on the weekends. We manage a good 4-6 hours of play every time. Recently we have upgraded our cricket equipment to meet the increase in strength of players and the ever expanding enthusiasm. Newer equipment and increasing number of enthusiasts have brought newer challenges. We would love to play at a bigger field and lately we have been playing at the Thornden park football field. However, the center of the field (which is pivotal to our game) is uneven and needs regular maintenance as far as the grass on the ground is concerned. You can visit our facebook page: ‘Upstate Cricket Club’. 

History of Thornden Shared

Susan Hardoby spoke about the history of Thornden Park and presented slides to the residents at The Oaks Residential Community at Menorah Park on July 7th. Some of the residents shared their remembrances of the park in earlier days, as they lived in the area back then. One resident said she had pictures of the many flower beds that inhabited the park in the forties or fifties. We are always interested in stories and pictures of the park and would love to hear and/or see them, so if you have any, please contact Susan. She also is willing to come speak at any gathering or meeting interested in learning about the history of the park. Call her at 445-1798.

In October 2008 Susan Hardoby presented the Park's historical slide show to the Women's Organization of DeWitt Community Church (and we thank them for their kind donation to help us continue our efforts in the park.) Please know that this presentation is free and we are more than happy to show it to your group. (We also have a video called Uncommon Ground, that we produced about the park.) Both are available to your community, church, garden or any other group or organization that may be interested in the history of the park and what a group can do to improve our wonderful public green spaces. Just give Susan a call at 445-1798 to schedule her in to your program. Thanks.