Craig Dunn and Coach Webster instruct team members

Saturday, November 06, 2010 was a bright crisp fall day.  At about 9 am, forty members of the Dickinson College lacrosse team came to the Scott Farm Appalachian Trail Work Center near Carlisle, PA to help Cumberland Valley Appalachian Trail Club work on its section of the world famous Appalachian Trail.  The team was led by Assistant Athletic Director and Men's Lacrosse Coach Dave Webster on its sixth annual workday with CVATC.

CVATC’s 17 mile section is one of the most accessible and heavily used portions of the AT, extending from south of Boiling Springs to Blue Mountain, north of Carlisle and Mechanicsburg.  Most of it follows creeks and streams through farms and woodlots.  Portions of the trail are in low lying areas that flood frequently, and the team members helped to shore up the trail in some of those areas.  They loaded shale into buckets and hauled it up to half a mile to build up flood prone trail.  Others cleaned out ditches and water bars that had become clogged with dirt and leaves, and helped drive posts to protect a bridge from flood damage.  More teammates hauled shale into a farm field to build up the trail where cows graze and turn the trail into a mud pie when the spring rains arrive.  “It’s a great upper body workout”, one team member said.

Dickinson lacrosse team members spread shale

Coach Webster believes that part of being a good leader of young men involves showing them how to give back to the community.  He says “My guys annually play volleyball for 24 hours straight to raise money for the local Red Cross Chapter.  They work as mentors in a local elementary school.  The team also regularly goes on weeklong service trips.  We have assisted Native American tribes and worked on projects for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.”

Six years ago, he read that the local AT maintaining club could use help with the trail.  He got in touch with Melanie Wertz, current Secretary and past President of the Club.  Together they planned the first team workday.  Many team members have come back year after year.

Andrew Blomquist is a senior International Business Management major from Baltimore, who hopes to work on Wall Street after graduation.  “This event really helps to bring our team together.  This is my fourth year doing this.”  Andrew says hauling shale is his favorite part of the workday.  “We make sure everyone takes a turn hauling shale, especially the freshmen.”

Brian Gleason is a freshman from Darien, CT.  He’s unsure of his major at present, but is leaning toward Political Science.  “This is a great chance to really make a difference”, he says.  “It’s a great team building exercise.  I also learned a lot about the Appalachian Trail.  I had no idea it was over 2,000 miles long, or that people from all over the world hike on it.”  Now that he knows about the AT, Brian hopes to hike some of it.

Taking a break after the hard work

The regular CVATC volunteers who supervised the team learned something also.  We learned that folks of all ages love to work hard and get dirty for a good cause.  Club Trail Master Craig Dunn says these special workdays are important because this large group of college students can easily tackle jobs like hauling shale that are beyond the limits of most Club volunteers.  We’re looking forward to the seventh annual Dickinson College lacrosse team workday.
Dickinson lacrosse team members