GLEN JEAN, W.Va. (AP) - With graduation season fast approaching, a group of 10 young people are hard at work wrapping up a 10-month experience that they are likely not to forget.
Along the New River, deep in the Gorge on a chilly, wet April day, the sounds of pounding sledgehammers can be heard echoing off the rocky walls that have sported a new spring coat of green.
With the area’s railroad history, it could be mistaken for echoes from the past.
However, the echoes are the sounds of the future coming from the hands of some of the nation’s young people.
The 10 were breaking up rocks to put in the muddy areas of the Stonecliff Trail.
For Jackie Mills, that Thursday’s work has been some of her favorite.
“Our first project was actually building trails, so I really like to get back into it,” Mills said. “It’s my favorite thing that we do here.”
Mills, from Iowa, is part of a 10-person AmeriCorps team that has traveled all over the South in the past 10 months lending a helping hand to those in need of a little volunteer help.
“It’s all over the board,” Mills added. “We’ve worked for Habitat for Humanity. We’ve worked with a nonprofit in Florida.”
The AmeriCorps team, named Delta Five, is part of AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps and is made up of young people from throughout the country.
With their stop in West Virginia being their last, Delta Five has traveled from its base in Vicksburg, Mississippi, to help out in Virginia, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, Virginia again and then to the Mountain State.
For Justin Storm, the work ethic and effort from each of the young volunteers has been outstanding.
Storm, a National Park Service employee, is the only dedicated trail builder and maintainer for all of the over 100 miles of park service trails along the New, Gauley and Bluestone rivers.
While Storm pulls other park service employees to help him when they can, he said a great deal of help comes from volunteers like the NCCC team.
“It’s definitely a huge help for me when I get volunteer groups,” Storm said.
While the team is helping Storm break up rocks and increasing trail drainage, they are not just free labor.
According to Storm, the young people with the NCCC team have been given an opportunity to move around multiple positions within the New River Gorge National River to get an idea of how the park operates.
“We’ve basically been trying to teach them the skills of what we do as a park service,” Storm said.
Along with trail and park maintenance, the team has worked with the fire team and with the park biologist removing invasive plant species.
That effort has paid off with a few of the young people considering careers in the park service.
“This has definitely made them want to stay on that path,” Mills said.
For the young woman, the experience of volunteering with the NCCC has changed her life.
“It’s awesome that we not only get to be here, but we get to help,” Mills said.
For the young Iowan, working with people from all over the country and learning while helping has been fruitful.
“It’s the most beneficial thing I’ve ever done,” Mills said, adding that she plans to try to recruit other young people to volunteer when she gets home.
That sentiment was shared by one of Mills’ NCCC teammates, Cody Carver from Pickens County, Georgia.
The young man, who plans to enlist in the Navy soon, has enjoyed working with people from all over the country.
“It’s hard to live with 10 people for 10 months, especially people from all walks of life,” Carver said. “But we’re pretty close now.”
Carver said the whole experience has taught him a lot, most of all the overall goodness of people.
“Through our travels, we’ve just seen how many people actually want to help people,” Carver said. “Not just the volunteers, but the people we’ve worked with, how passionate they are about the stuff that they do.”
For Carver, finishing off in southern West Virginia has been an added benefit.
“It’s nice because it reminds me of home,” the young man said. “I love the mountains.”
For the team’s leader, Jon Belke of Norfolk, Virginia, the end of the program is a bizarre thought to him.
When he originally volunteered, Belke said 10 months seemed like forever, but being with a team that has gotten along has made time fly by.
“I think it’s a really great program,” Belke said. “They’ve been really fun to work with.”
A recent graduate of the University of Virginia who studied American Studies, Belke said experiencing the places he learned about in school has been wonderful.
“A lot of what I focused on in American Studies was the South,” the young Virginian said. “It’s been really cool to have learned that, have it be in my mind and to be able to actually go see these places.”
For Belke, the greatest learning experience was learning about himself.
As the team leader, the young man was unsure how he would handle being in charge of nine other volunteers but quickly learned to make the best of the situation.
“Everything will get done. I don’t need to worry about it,” Belke said. “They’ve handled themselves and got stuff done.”
When asked if other young people should volunteer, Belke quickly answered yes.
“I think a lot of us have learned so much about ourselves because it’s such a fish-out-of-water experience for everybody,” he said. “It’s definitely been one of the hardest things I’ve done, but it’s been the most rewarding.”
Though from eastern Virginia, the volunteer experience in the New River Gorge has been Belke’s first experience in the Mountain State and it blew the young man away.
“I’m really happy to have finished here because I think it’s the most beautiful place we’ve been,” Belke said.
The American Studies major particularly enjoyed checking out the historical attractions at Nuttallburg and Thurmond and said he was happy to see those places protected.
The natural beauty and the outdoor experience were key components to finding West Virginia attractive for Belke, and Mills agreed.
With no mountains in her home state of Iowa, Mills has blown away when she saw the mountain views, particularly at Grandview.
Set to leave soon, Mills said she would return some day.
“Maybe not soon but in a couple of years definitely,” the young woman said.
After they are finished in the Gorge, the team will return to Vicksburg for an additional week and then graduate.
For Storm, the work provided by the volunteers will be missed as the warmer weather brings the major hiking season to the trails.
As a testament to the quality of the young people with the NCCC, Storm shared one of the team’s most unusual West Virginia experiences.
Although the team had missed a couple of days due to snow, the most memorable canceled day came from the recent high waters of the New River.
Staying at Camp Brookside in Hinton County, the team was cut off from leaving when the water topped the bridge going into the camp.
When the water started to recede, Storm went to check on the young people to make sure they were OK.
When the park service employee arrived at the camp, he found the entire team already at work clearing the bridge of debris.
“They’ve been a huge help,” Storm said.
Along will Mills, Carver and Belke, members of the NCCC team are Kaseim Taylor, of Cherokee, North Carolina, Ieisha Malone, of Mobile, Alabama, Michael Andress, of Arnold, Missouri, Ashely Kallhoff, of Salem, Oregon, Sylvester Mabry, of Redondo Beach, California, and Renjia Huang of Brooklyn, New York.
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Information from: The Register-Herald, http://www.register-herald.com
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