Volunteer Recognition Event

Thursday, October 01, 2009

With two major Cardinal Greenway trail projects under construction, it is only appropriate that this year's theme for the annual Cardinal Greenways Volunteer Recognition Dinner was Construction. Yellow construction tape, orange safety cones, Bob the Builder decorations, and staff dressed in vests and construction hats greeted the eighty-five volunteer guests for the 5:30 p.m. dinner celebration held at the Wysor St. Cardinal Greenway Depot on Thursday, September 17, 2009. Thank you to Ron and Susan Orebaugh of Grand Grilling to Go for preparing a delicious meal of pulled pork sandwiches, au gratin potatoes, slaw and brownies.

Angie Pool, Cardinal Greenway Interim Director, opened the warm, beautiful evening by welcoming the volunteer guests and expressing the staff's gratitude for all the volunteer help with trail maintenance, events and security. Following dinner, Teresa Willman, Cardinal Greenway Board President, spoke about the 1st annual Celebrating Health Walk on October 18th which will honor former Executive Director, Lenette Freeman. She explained the importance of this new annual walk event in helping to raise funds to support the maintenance of the Cardinal Greenways trails as construction money pays for the building of trails but not the long term maintenance. In keeping with our construction theme, Phil Tevis, Cardinal Greenway Project Director, updated our honored guests with information about the new phase of the White River Greenway and the Wayne County trail construction.

Kay Conklin, Cardinal Greenway volunteer coordinator presented awards to ranger, event, office and maintenance volunteers. Volunteers received citations for their contributions as "Crack Sealer Extraordinaire", "Plumber of the Year" and "Always On-Call" in addition to the traditional awards for most volunteer hours.

A big thank you to our dedicated Cardinal Greenway volunteers who provided over 3600 hours of volunteer time in securing, cleaning and maintaining the trail for everyone's enjoyment.       Photo Gallery