[at-l] Re: Trail volunteers

[Cosmo.A.Catalano@williams.edu (cosmo catalano, jr.)]

This sounds very familiar!  The young people we see working on the 
trial are part of organized crews that we bring in with the 
assistance of the AMC and ATC.  They help us write grant requests for 
their own funds (relatively limited) or funding from outside sources. 
"My" AT Committee itself leads work parties every Tuesday and 
Saturday from May to Sept.  We typically see about 2-6 people on 
these crews and very few new faces.  Volunteer outreach really needs 
to be our top priority. Of course the Committee is mostly guys (like 
myself--though I'm the baby at 48) with limited social skills.  What 
we need are some "maintainer babes" to give us some glitz.

The AMC provides their "Volunteer Trail Crew" which offers 
participants a week on the AT or Mt Greylock.  Of course the 
participants have to pay $65 to volunteer...this is the AMC after 
all.  The advantage to our club is there are 7 weeks of 3-8 crew 
people out on the trail--not the most experienced folks mind you, but 
they are usually young and enthusiastic and are well led by seasonal 
AMC staff.  What I try and do is meet them for a day of work or at a 
meal and tell them about the Committee's work and how they can join 
us.  I've gotten a few nibbles, but the best recruit to date has been 
a former crew leader.

Cosmo

  At 3:46 PM -0500 1/25/02, Bluetrail@aol.com wrote:
>Interesting to note that the FT has many of the same problems 
>regarding volunteers.  Most of our Central Florida FT Chapter work 
>hikes are supported by volunteers 50+.  On a recent work hike with 
>another chapter I was the youngster volunteer at age 54.  The guy 
>running the mower the entire day (it's Florida, you know) was 72.
>
>We have two regular work hikes volunteers in their 80's. The FT now 
>has some funds for paid work crews, who are generally in their 20's 
>or early 30's.  Those paid crews are mostly being sent to more 
>remote sections and are doing some very good work.   Those long-time 
>FT folks in their 70's and 80's are all concerned that there won't 
>be any more need for their help and the FT will lose the commraderie 
>(wish I could spell) that grows from sharing trail work.  It's great 
>to be working on a young trail (FTstarted in the mid 1960's) with 
>people who have built it from the beginning.  They bring a wealth of 
>experience and some great stories of the early days.
>
>Our FT meetings are likewise primarily populated with folks 40-50 
>and above. Do we have to wait till that age to have the time to 
>start giving back?
>
>Joan
>bluetrail@aol.com