On August 24th, the NorthWoods community came together to celebrate our 35th Anniversary of conservation and education.

The weather was perfection and we were amazed at the turnout, with an approximate count of 46 people helping to hike ALL the fire tower step and decking materials up the mountain!

Then over 100 hikers, friends and alum gathered at the NorthWoods lodge to eat good food, listen to live music, socialize with old friends and celebrate the NWSC community: where we’ve come from and where we’re headed!

In addition to some words from Executive Director Maria Young, the audience listened as Bruce Berryman shared a bit about the history of NorthWoods, Kerry O’Brien reminisced about life on campus, Fritz Gerhardt recalled the the transformation of the VLC to NWSC, and Hannah Keith gave us a glimpse of the importance NorthWoods can play in the life of a young Corps member.

A special thank you to our signature sponsors Passumpsic Bank, Community National Bank, Better Real Estate, and Century 21 Farm & Forest.

And to those who helped make this day a fun one: Green Mountain Club: NEK, Libbey’s Meats, Jasper Hill Farm, Red Sky Trading, Dirt Church Brewing, The Constables, and VT Forests, Parks & Recreation for setting us the challenge of our volunteer task!

Our final speaker, Hannah Keith, 19, was kind enough to share her speech with us, and while we’ll let her do most of the talking, NorthWoods stories like hers are shared by many alum, and are one of the biggest reasons we love what we do!

“One afternoon during the winter of 2020, right before COVID shut down all the schools, I was sitting in the library with my friend Ella Switser, who many of you know, doing homework. She looked up and said, “Hey, what’s another way to say you have gardening experience but make it sound more professional?” I asked her what she was working on and she said, “ I’m filling out an application for this summer job at NorthWoods Stewardship Center. You should apply too and then we could work together!” I asked her what the job was and when she explained that we would be working with other teenagers on a crew doing manual labor outside for 6 weeks I said, “I’m in!” So we both applied to work on the local day crew and we both got the job.

On my first day working here, my crew was at the Jay Rec Center building bridges. Except the lumber was not at the bridge site yet so I was tasked to help Josh Kelley haul in the wood that whole morning. Those of you who know Josh know that he is a big strong guy. I was a small shy 14 year old. As I struggled to balance and carry the boards he handed me some padding to put on my shoulder and said, “You hurt now but just wait for tomorrow, it’s going to be much worse.” In that moment I wondered if I had made a mistake but I quickly realized over the next few weeks that it was quite the opposite. I was convinced that I had found the best summer job ever. Instead of scooping ice cream or mowing lawns I was getting paid to hike and explore the NEK while doing meaningful and rewarding work that did make me more sore than I had ever been but it also made me stronger than I had ever been.

I had so much fun that summer that I decided to apply again the next summer and the summer after that. My third summer working at NorthWoods I was part of the first ever Women’s Plus Crew. Even though I already had two summers of experience working on trails it was empowering to work on a
crew with all women. I had three leaders that year who were all college aged women starting their lives and careers. Learning from them and all of the other professional women we met that summer helped me start to think about actually making a career out of this work.

I returned for my fourth summer last year right after graduating from high school. I was going to work on the women’s crew again but Blase and Dusty asked me to help lead one of the day crews instead. I was a little apprehensive at first because I am a pretty quiet person and don’t usually seek out leadership roles, but I felt confident in my skills and knowledge and also knew that Dusty, Blase, and Charles would help support me. When I showed up to meet my crew, there were four teenage boys and one of them was my little brother. I was like – oh my –what did I get myself into?
However I guess I underestimated everything that I had learned over the past three years. NorthWoods had more than prepared me for that responsibility and I had a blast with my crew. They were all very funny and hard workers and we had a great season.

I told myself at the end of last summer that I had probably stayed my welcome at NorthWoods and that I might want to move on to something new after starting college. However, this past winter I found myself checking the NorthWoods website to see if they had posted the summer job positions yet
and when I saw that the Pro Crew season matched up perfectly with my summer schedule I couldn’t help myself.

I have had so much fun the past 15 weeks living and working across VT and NH. We have worked on many different projects in many places, from tread work in the Green Mountains to cutting a re-route on the Old Bridle Path in Franconia Notch to building a 16-step stone staircase on Wheeler Mountain. For our last 2 weeks, we are working right here at NorthWoods, on the new All Persons Trail, helping the ReCon Crew install culverts.

Throughout my time at NorthWoods, I have grown so much as a person while learning new skills and becoming confident in my problem solving and leadership abilities. I am very grateful to work at a place where everyone is so enthusiastic about the work we do and supportive of one another. I don’t know what the future holds for me, but I am so glad to have spent the last 5 summers working at this amazing place.”