This award honors organizations or individuals that have made a lasting, positive impression on the park or forest that they serve and that have advanced the mission of PPFF and DCNR. This award is for those who actively engage in a wide range of projects, have logged in significant volunteer hours in proportion to the size and location of the park or forest, and/or have developed an innovative volunteer program.
There are certain volunteers who can be counted on to do anything they are tasked with doing. They are essential to making sure that our parks and forest get the care and attention they need. These volunteers are wonderful and selfless, and their dedication should not go unnoticed. Then there are some volunteers who go even further beyond the usual expectations. Patti and Jamey Hutchinson are two such volunteers.
Patti is part of the Cavity Nesting Trail volunteer team at French Creek State Park and is the sole volunteer for the program at Nolde Forest EEC. This means that she comes to the park on a weekly basis and hikes all over the property, collecting the nesting data from all her designated boxes. Because habitat is important to the success of cavity nesters, the boxes are not all located in one area. This often required her to park and hike from one area of the park to another with all the necessary gear in tow. And when one of the many bluebird boxes that Patti monitors is in need of repair, Jamey fixes them.
It is one thing to be asked to do something and do it well. It is another thing entirely to recognize a need and make it your mission to assist, unprovoked. This is where Patti and Jamey excel. They rent a kayak mooring spot on Hopewell Lake in French Creek State Park. Each year as they paddle, they collect trash that floats in the lake. This is not an initiative through the park, nor is it recognized by any volunteer organization. It is simply something they do because they are dedicated to bettering the public lands they enjoy.
Fishing tackle is most often the refuse that they find left behind. This year alone they found 128 bobbers, 170 hooks, yards upon yards of tangled fishing line, entire tackle boxes, and hundreds of lead weights. While it would be easy to simply collect and properly dispose of all the trash, Patti and Jamey spend extra time sorting through the hauls, reserving and cleaning up usable tackle and gear which they then hand out to the youth fishing around the lake.
In addition to trail maintenance and special project improvement work at Nolde EEC and French Creek State Park, Jamey helps with maintenance on the 140-mile Horse-Shoe Trail. He has served on the Horse-Shoe Trail Conservancy Board since 2008 and as the Trail Maintenance co-chair since 2016. He serves in volunteer capacities for other conservation organizations as well.
Patti and Jamey epitomize the type of caring volunteer that we are all lucky to have in our parks and forest, leaving the land and water better than they found it. We should all strive to be as attentive park stewards.
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