July 16, 2007
Jean Millan, volunteer

I have been visiting Mount Rainier since I moved to Washington in 1983 and have spent many enjoyable days hiking the wonderful trails throughout the park. I consider Mount Rainier like a second home. Then the floods came and the winds blew. My favorite tent camping site at Sunshine Point was gone! Immediately I decided that it was time for me to give back some of myself to the park which has given me so very much joy, peace, and serenity over the years. I have put in eight volunteer days so far and plan to keep adding to that number throughout the summer.

There are many things that need to be done, and I have learned some new skills too. I quickly discovered a very pleasant side benefit to helping repair and re-route the trails I so often hiked—I get to work with an absolutely wonderful group of young people from the SCA! They make the day's work seem to fly, even though I am almost 60 years old and had never done most of the types of trail work before. Payback time is so rewarding to me in so many ways!

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