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 Cha

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