Children and adults alike crowded around to hear Kathy Church talk about snakes and hope they could touch the ones she brought to the Fannin County Public Library in her “Snakes Alive” presentation last Tuesday.
Church is a wildlife interpretive specialist/program coordinator with the Wildlife Resources Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. She is headquartered at Smithgall Woods State Park near Helen.
Church said she does over 800 programs a year, teaching about wildlife.
Her presentation last week was non-stop. Eyes and ears stayed fixed on her and her exhibits as she moved back and forth in front of the crowd, made jokes, asked questions and, above all, educated. She explained differences in various snakes and where they are found, how they kill their prey, what they eat and don’t eat, and how they act when left alone or threatened.
She left the young people with one rule, “don’t touch.” She told them if they ever saw a snake to get away and tell an adult, which is the safest thing to do.
The end of the program brought the question Church told the group she predicted, “Can I pet the snake?” And it brought the answer they had hoped for, “yes” they could.
The library will host another Smithgall Woods presentation, Creepy Crawlers, which features various insects, July 7 at 11 a.m. Like “Snakes Alive,” this program is open to everyone and begins at 11 a.m. Both are part of the library’s Summer Reading Events whthat continue thorugh July 23.