Sugar Shack open house held in Wyoming County
FACTORYVILLE, WYOMING COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — Traditions only get sweeter with time, and each year, more and more people are tapping to get into this annual event at the Sugar Shack in Wyoming County.
About 500 people showed up to enjoy a sweet treat in Factoryville Sunday afternoon, and it was all for a good cause, part of the adventure costing the crowds nothing at all.
Maple tapping, sweet treats, and a 5K sugar run were what you could find Sunday afternoon at Keystone College.
One of the organizers, Casey Stratton, a senior at Keystone College, says she wanted to go out with a bang.
That’s why all the proceeds from the 5K will be donated to a cause near and dear to a lot of people.
Exit will be closed due to roadwork overnight in Lackawanna County
“I chose American Cancer Society because a lot of us have been touched by cancer personally, I have two on our breast cancer survivors, so it was kind of a way for me to tie in together or something that meant something to me and also do it through my club for the future healthcare professionals,” said Stratton.
People also got the opportunity to walk through the steps of tapping a tree and seeing how maple syrup is made.
“They’ll have a chance if they want to tap a tree. We have a station set up where they can practice tapping a tree. we’ll teach them all about the ways that we collect sap with tubing or with old-fashioned buckets we’ll go through the whole process,” said organizer Kelley Stewart.
Another organizer, Kelly Stewart, took people into the woods to show them how to identify a maple tree.
“We also have tours through our Sugar Bush so they take a walk through the woods and they get to see all of our sugar trees and we’ll talk about how we lay out those lines and talk about other things that they might have questions about such as insect pass,” Stewart explained.
Ausar Alexander, A Keystone College wildlife biology student who is also volunteering at the event, says after taking the class last spring he’s enjoyed working with the Sugar Shack since.
“I found it interesting to learn you know the history behind Maple syrup and how you know how it’s processed how it’s boiled down you know the alcohol content used to clean off trees and things like that,” Alexander stated.
With so much to enjoy Stewart says her favorite part is seeing the community come together.
“With open house, it is so, it’s so nice to just meet families and have them ask us wonderful questions and just really they’re just so happy to learn about this whole process so I love the connection with the community,” Stewart said.
They also had plenty of maple syrup goods for sale.
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