Every October, Penny Chamberlain remembers the ecology club students who dressed up as mushrooms and forest trolls for the Halloween walks at Thorn Creek in Park Forest.
Chamberlain, who recently stepped down as president of the Friends of Thorn Creek board, said seasons of her year are often marked by events at Thorn Creek, which includes 5 acres of woods, a historic church and a nature center along Monee Road in Park Forest.
Until recently, the community hosted a Garlic Fest at Thorn Creek each summer that she said brought more than 200 people. In the winter, Chamberlain enjoyed sledding down a hill next to the woods with inner tubes and a Christmas event with caroling and bongo drums.
But the Halloween and Garlic events stopped as the organizers behind them left or retired, and Chamberlain, 84, said she is worried about getting a new generation of people to lead the preservation association, known as Friends of Thorn Creek Woods, which celebrates its 56 anniversary this year.
“It’s a good feeling to know that there are so many good people that volunteer, but the only problem is now they’re all getting old,” Chamberlain said. “That’s why we need people to step up and volunteer and we need some new officers because most of our board is elderly.”
Chamberlain announced her retirement in September as president, along with the retirement of her friend and the board secretary, Carolyn Gann. The association aims to find people interested in these positions before a board election in November.
While the association gained two new members this year through mutual connections, Chamberlain said it’s been hard to get younger people involved because they usually also have other jobs and commitments
Chamberlain said she even returned as president after briefly retiring because the association could not find someone to fill the role. She said part of the struggle is that schools stopped bringing young students to Thorn Creek, which usually brought more youth involvement.
Yet the historic collaboration and community that has gone into the nature preserve, Chamberlain said, is what makes the place so unique.
Thorn Creek Nature Center is owned and managed by the Will County Forest Preserve District and the villages of Park Forest and University Park, and is managed by the Thorn Creek Woods Management Commission, composed of landowners and the Friends of Thorn Creek Woods.
The preservation also has ties with the local audubon club and Park Forest Garden Club, which just celebrated its 71st anniversary.
While the Will County Forest Preserve cuts the grass and takes care of fallen trees, Park Forest and University Park collaborate on funds and events.
Members of Friends of Thorn Creek Woods, the 56-year grassroots effort to preserve the land, staff the nature center and manage much of the day-to-day operations.
“It’s just the gem of the south suburbs because it’s a nature preserve and because of all the people involved, and the people who started it went through a lot trying to get it established,” Chamberlain said.
The effort that became the preservation association and later Friends of Thorn Creek started as a group of neighbors in 1969, who dubbed themselves the Walnut Hill Gang, and vowed to fight proposed development.
The board, in a September news release, said responsibilities for new members would be minimal, between one and two hours a month to attend the monthly board meeting at the Thorn Creek Nature Center.
Being president or secrtary of the friends group is a great way to bring new ideas and perspectives to the organization and the nature center, its trails and programs, the news release read.
The board, Chamberlain said, needs help with nature center office hours once a month and with the annual newsletter, as the editor may soon retire.
The president’s role, currently open, would include responsible for running the board and general membership meetings, authorizing official contracts and other items.
Duties for the recording secretary, also open, would be keeping meeting minutes, being the “custodian” of the corporate records and sending out notifications for meetings, along with preparing meeting agendas, news releases, events, activities and official correspondence such as thank you cards.
A 15-year-old hiking bridge spanning Thorn Creek was deemed “unsafe” because horizontal beams bracing the structure at water level seem to be splintering. (Penny Shnay/for the Daily Southtown)
The board is also working to raise funds for a new bridge. Chamberlain said two out of the three paths are inaccessible because the bridge over the creek is inoperable.
Her favorite spot, Owl Lake, is over the bridge and cannot be accessed. Chamberlain said she remembers going there often and seeing snakes, toads, and birds like a prothonotary warbler, and even meeting one of the previous naturalists there, who she later often went birding with.
One of the new members, she said, is working to raise money through raffles, but the process is in limbo because they are waiting for an engineer’s report about the viability of rebuilding the bridge, she said.
The learn more about the organization, donate to the bridge fund or volunteer, go to tcwoods.org or email thorn_creek@att.net.
awright@chicagotribune.com
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/09/28/preservation-group-thorn-creek-volunteers/
