Tom Clasper Memorial Fund

The Tom Clasper Memorial Fund was established by his family to honour his memory with donations to the Sixteen Island Lake Conservation Association (SILCA). The fund has been transferred to Friends/Amis with the mission to provide the children environmental educational experiences.

The following is a brief description of yearly events:

2010

Family Craft Night held at the Sixteen Island Lake Fishing Club on August 2nd, 2010 turned to the ‘dark’ side as children and adults learned about nocturnal residents such as great horned owls, flying squirrels and bats before assembling and decorating bat houses to install at their cottages around the lake.

Families were introduced to the six (6) kinds of bats found in our area, the two most common being Eastern Red Bats (solitary bats that are camouflaged like a curled dead leaf in daytime) and Little Brown Bats (stream out from eaves-troughs at dusk!).  Summer colonies of 50 or more Little Brown Bats consist almost exclusively of female bats, each with a single nursing pup.  The bats earn their keep each night by consuming 2400-4800 mayflies, midges, mosquitoes, and other insects.

The hope is that the 18 bat houses assembled that evening will provide refuge for bats which are increasingly under threat from loss of habitat and most recently, from a disease lethal to bats known as White Nose Syndrome.  The new bat houses were distributed evenly around the lake from the Campbell Brown’s at the head of the lake to the Lorange’s at the south, Latour’s on the west, and Hamilton Walsh’s on the east. 

2011

For the second year in a row, the Friends of the Lake/Amis du Lac sponsored a Family Craft Night on August 1st, 2011. The subject of this year’s nature presentation was birds; their habitat, food, nests, eggs and the diversity ranging from the tiny hummingbird with pea-sized eggs to the great blue heron standing 4 1/2 feet tall! The craft that followed was an assortment of felt bird ornaments perfect for a mobile or Christmas tree.