by Christine Lauriello, President, Cumberland Valley Appalachian Trail Club
Getting the next generation interested in maintaining our treasured trails will help ensure the trails last for years to come.
I have 2 kids: Katie (10 going on 30) and TJ (8 and the primary cause of my gray hair), both involved in the Scouts. Recently, we had the opportunity to involve Katie’s troop in volunteer trail maintenance for an afternoon.
Katie’s troop is composed of “juniors” (4th- and 5th-graders). This year, the girls decided they wanted to pursue the Bronze Award, the highest recognition they could receive for their age group. They performed some really great activities—collecting clothes for people in the Philippines who lost everything in the November 2013 typhoon, working at Project Share on several Saturdays, collecting stuffed animals and donating them to local EMS and fire companies (to comfort children at the scene of a health emergency or fire), and also helping out on the trail.
Katie’s troop came out for a workday of filling muskrat holes around the lake. Let me just say: none of the girls complained or whined a bit! They put on their work gloves and went right to work. The adults carried buckets of small stones; the girls scooped them out and filled the holes. The girls have little hands, and the holes were about 3 inches wide, so it worked out perfectly. The girls had smiles on their faces all day while they helped each other and got more rocks when we ran low.
Since that day, Katie came out multiple times to help with water bars. She helped the adults gather rocks by rolling them to the others and helped place the rocks for the water bars. When the time came to compact the soil, Katie’s stomping was very effective for a couple reasons: tiny feet and not much weight behind them. Had an adult done this, that person would have sunk ankle-deep in mud. Joe Frassetta came up with the unique solution to put both her feet in buckets, and then she stomped away. It worked great!
Trail maintenance can be highly rewarding for young volunteers, as they’ll take pride in their accomplishments and be part of a team. It’s also a great opportunity for a family to spend some quality time together! There are plenty of activities kids can do on the trail—weeding flower beds at trailheads, moving small rocks, filling holes, cleaning up litter, and monitoring boundary markers are just a few examples.