SHERBURNE – For perhaps the last time this Sunday, Rogers Environmental Education Center will host its annual Winter Living Celebration.

The event had to be rescheduled from its regular January date after the New York Department of Environmental Conservation announced the center’s closure by Dec. 31 and the elimination of five full-time positions at the facility.

The event has taken on a more profound meaning for those opposed to the center’s closure and organizers are hoping it will attract a high number of supporters this weekend.

Rogers Director Marsha Guzewich, whose position is also being cut, referred to the celebration as “the last hurrah.”

Rogers was established as New York’s first game farm in 1909 and is currently the oldest in the United States.

The site began operating wildlife and nature educational programs in 1968, and was ordered to close by the end of the year on Nov. 18 as part of Governor David Paterson’s plan to save $250 million by laying off 898 state workers, including about 150 from the DEC.

Sunday’s event is sponsored by the Friends of Rogers, a non-profit volunteer group that has long supplemented the center’s state-funded programs with number of additional community based activities.