The Trails and Tree crew, a.k.a.
TNT crew or “The Gray Beards”, initiate responsibility
for maintaining all of the park’s trails. This small, tight-knit
group of retirees spends their Mondays and Wednesdays working on clearing
fallen trees from paths, problem solving trail erosion issues, planting
trees and much more.
The visionary behind this passionate group is Bob Haines. Bob has
lived in this area for much of his life but he decided to become more
involved about 20 years ago. While riding his bike in the park everyday,
he saw a lack of maintenance (ex. trees down over paths or sometimes
sand from floods covering the path). He started carrying a bow saw
on his bicycle and would stop to cut up trees and even shovel sand
off the path. Occasionally people stopped to help him until gradually
he started picking up more steady help. For the past 15 years, the
TNT crew has been running strong with a steady work crew of retired
men. Meet these men on the next page by listening in on their thoughts
about why giving back is important to them.
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The Gator Patrol on the other hand is a relatively
new work crew that was established a year or so ago to address the
trash issues facing the park. Jim Smith, who worked the TNT crew for
eight years until lower back problems sidelined him, decided he still
wanted to remain involved so he approached Mr. Haines with his idea
of a regular trash patrol crew in the park. Last year they put in
about 620 hours and pulled out about 500 bags of trash, 100 tires,
construction debris, electrical appliances, shopping carts, you name
it, they probably removed it. |
