Enough can’t be written or said about this group of young men and women who come into our parks for three weeks during the summer to help us with huge projects.
This past Saturday was the graduation for the first session. The staff of Twin Lakes, High Bridge Trail and Sailor’s Creek Battlefield State Parks would like to express our gratitude for all their efforts this year. The YCC group that was assigned to these parks this year was a team of young men who turned out to be hard workers and not enough could be said about their supervisors who are probably three of the best in the program.
This year the parks located in central Virginia did something different with our YCC group – we split their three weeks between three state parks. During first week, they worked at Twin Lakes doing trail improvements and building park benches for a playground and Goodwin Lake trail. At High Bridge Trail the group built picnic tables that will be placed along the trail so that our park visitors can enjoy a picnic lunch while riding or walking the trail. The last week of their stay they repaired a split rail fence and removed over 300 old brick pavers at the historical park, Sailor’s Creek Battlefield.
Of course it was not always all work and no play. They enjoyed field trips such as tubing down the James River, bowling, and visiting local tourist attractions. They also enjoyed park activities such as nature programs, hiking, canoeing and the ritual of attempting to eat the Avalanche, a huge ice cream sundae available only at Twin Lakes’ snack bar.
As park staff said our goodbyes on Saturday, I kept thinking about the groups that came before them. Some crew members return year after year and eventually become supervisors. Our hopes and desires for these young men and women as they return to their everyday lives is to leave us with the knowledge of nature and the yearning to continue to support our parks through the YCC program or as a volunteer.
Again, to the fifteen young men who became a member of our park family this summer we thank you for all your hard work and we hope to see youin the YCC program next year.