On June 4, 2011, 19th Annual National Trails Day®. The event, which was held at Sky Meadows State Park from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., was a huge success! Twenty-eight eager volunteers showed up, including Boy Scout Troop 1983 from Oakton, Virginia. The trail crew contributed more than 150 volunteer hours to the park and National Trails Day®.
National Trails Day® was created by the American Hiking Society in 1993. The annual hiker holiday has inspired thousands of people to enjoy trails on the same day nationwide – taking part in hikes, horse rides, trail clean ups, exhibits, demonstrations, and other outdoor activities. At Sky Meadows State Park’s National Trails Day® event activities included trail maintenance and clean up, invasive species removal, and a special hiking presentation by Blue Ridge Mountain Sports. All the volunteers received a National Trails Day® T-shirt, courtesy of Blue Ridge Mountain Sports.
The slogan for NTD 2011, Made with All Natural Ingredients, inspired one local restaurant to donate lunch to our hard working volunteers. Zoe’s Kitchen – Fairfax Pointe located in Fairfax, Virginia, donated a catered lunch to the volunteers at Sky Meadows State Park. We dined on turkey and egg salad sandwiches, potato & pasta salads, and a wonderfully delicious hummus. Let’s just say there wasn’t much left! Our thanks go out to the folks at Zoe’s Kitchen for their generous support of our volunteers!
If youwould like tovolunteer at Sky Meadows State Park, there are plenty of opportunities to do so. The park has a number of on-going volunteer opportunities for peopleof all ages.If you would like to give back, but can not commit toa regular volunteer schedule,the park will have a Day of Service on Sunday, September 11, 2011. You can come to the park and help withinvasive species removal from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. To learn more aboutall of our volunteer opportunities, please contact the park at 540-592-3556.