10^th Annual Western New York Letterbox Gathering

 The Magical Stamp World of WNY

& WNYen You Wish Upon a Star 2012

(last updated August 11, 2012)

NOTE: If you plan on printing info from this page, the white will NOT show up on your paper! Either print in grayscale, or cut and paste the text into a Word document where you can change the font color to whatever you like! J

General Info: For our 10^th anniversary, we decided to go back to the Southern Tier to one of our favorite little parks. For our day event, The Magical Stamp World of WNY 2012, we’re going to be at Sprague Brook County Park, just south of Buffalo in Erie County. This is quite close to Chestnut Ridge Park (for those who’ve never BEEN to Boxing Mecca!), so you can always run over there for a stamp or two (hundred!). It's on August 18^th and will go from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM. As usual, we’ll also have a full weekend for those wanting to hang out and do some night boxing.  WNYen You Wish Upon A Star will also be at Sprague Brook beginning on Friday, August 17^th  and continue until checkout time on August 19^th. You can drop in whenever you like if you can’t stay Friday night, but if you plan to stay overnight in the park with us at ALL, be SURE to sign up for both the day and ESPECIALLY the night event. Also, we won’t be blocking off any campsites for folks this year, so if you plan to stay overnight, follow the directions to reserve your campsite ASAP…they go fast at the end of the summer!

Directions: Sprague Brook is a pretty remote Erie County park, but the MAIN way to get there is just off Route 219 (which is itself just off the NYS Thruway (I-90). The most direct way is to take Route 219 South to the Armor Duells Road Exit (also Rt. 240, 277 and Chestnut Ridge Park exit). Head east until you reach Armor Duells Road, then turn right (south). This road becomes NY 240, which winds around through some of the smaller ski towns for about 15 miles before you’ll see Foote Road on your left, (should also be a sign for Sprague Brook on that far corner). Turn left and make the first left into the park. Stay to the left in the park, going toward the campsites. This will take you over the creek and up a little incline. There will be shelters on the left and #6 will be the smaller one on the right by the bathrooms. If you REALLY don’t know where we are, look for folks stamping on tables (or wave your logbook in the air and we’ll know you’re one of us!).

If you want a less scenic route, but possibly faster, take 219 South to Genesee Road, which is just north of the Springville exit (Route 39). Head east (left turn) over the bridge until you get to Route 240. At this point, you’re below the park, so turn left (north) and follow that back up to Foote Road, where the half hidden entry sign for Sprague Brook will be on your right. Turn right, make the first left into the park, then follow the park directions above.

Event Schedule: We always try to maximize your boxing time, so the schedule is simple:

Saturday, 11:00am: Event begins. Come stamp into the event book, get the event stamps, exchange with other boxers and get some food. You can do this at ANY time between 11:00 and 4:30, but the food DOES run out and people will be in and out all day! IF YOU HAVE NEVER BEEN TO A GATHERING, BE SURE TO COME AT THIS TIME SO WE CAN HAVE TIME TO MEET YOU AND HELP YOU GET ORIENTED! Also, feel free to check at AQ for tips on attending a gathering to help you out.

11:00-4:30pm: Boxing all over the park. You can also use this time to exchange at the pavilion or just talk to other folks in the area

4:30pm:  Group photo. Be sure to come back in time to get everyone in the shot so we’ve got something to share on the boards!

4:45pm: Raffle & Award time! Pay a $1 per ticket and get a shot at winning some great boxing supplies or win a stamping award for the day!

5:00pm: Day event ends. Join up with the local folks for dinner at Ponderosa in Springville or head home/to your hotel/to the campgrounds to relax.

9:00pm: Night boxing event. We will start as soon as the sun goes down that night, so be back at Sprague Brook around this time.

Sunday, all day: Box on your own. Come back to get what boxes you missed!

Food: Like all gatherings, our bounty will be potluck, so bring your favorite dish and let us know what it is (so we don’t have too little or too much of anything!). We'll provide hotdogs and soda if you bring the side dishes!

Accommodations: Your first choice for lodging that weekend should be camping at Sprague Brook, since you’ll get to do the extra evening events that the day visitors won’t be a part of. Our personal site is #60, so try to get in to a site anywhere from #55-63 to be near the action (and call SOON…the sites are already booking up!). If outdoor living’s just not where it’s at for you, the nearby town of Springville has a Microtel. If you don’t mind staying just a little further away, you can do a search around Orchard Park, Hamburg & even Buffalo or Ellicottville. If you have kids, there are two Hampton Inns with indoor pools. One is in West Seneca, which is closer to the main highway, while the other is in East Aurora and a little further away from the main road.

Boxes: Currently, there’s only one box in Sprague Brook, plus several at county parks all around it (most notably Chestnut Ridge). Clues for the park boxes will be posted on our gathering clues page on Wednesday the 15^th, so no peeking until then. We’ll also have a booklet of the park clues to give out at the pavilion, but only until we run out, so don’t come too late. Our box theme is all about the silver screen, so let us know if you’d like to donate a box based on your favorite movie, actor or actress, genre or anything else! More importantly, though, let us know if you want to donate raffle items! Any boxing supplies or fun items you can send to add to our list would really help make the whole thing worthwhile. Proceeds for this raffle will go toward the cost of the pavilion, the grill food and...well, other raffle items! :-).

Getting Around & Other Boxes: There’s the Thruway boxes on your way into town, but also check the event page at Atlas Quest, or do a search for nearby boxes in Springville or Glenwood boxes (you’ll want to expand your search to at least 25 miles). If you don’t mind leaving the area, check for boxes in Niagara and Erie County on LBNA (Wyoming, Genesee and Orleans if you have more time to spend)!  If you DO want to make a weekend out of it, don't forget that any boxes in Buffalo, Tonawanda, Depew & Amherst are good or cities along the thruway (Batavia, Henrietta and Williamsville especially!). Mapworks sells an EXCELLENT map of the Western New York area with all the little side streets and rabbit runs, so you might want to invest the 4 or 5 bucks on one.

Questions?: Let us know (the Sprite & the Highlander) if WE can be of more help. This is the ninth WNY gathering we’ve planned (tenth for the area…happy anniversary, WNY!!!) and we always strive for a relaxing weekend amongst friends, old and new. BfloAnonChick is our partner in crime this year, so feel free to check in with her as well. We will have our Cootie Catcher on hand, so if you WANT a cootie (or DON’T want one), you can take one/give one to the container. If you know of anyone else that's interested, please feel free to pass this info along to them and have them sign up on Atlas Quest! Hope to see you there!

The (already getting her list of boxes to carve from Netflix) Sprite & the (working out ways to make a trip to the drive in a part of letterboxing) Highlander

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