At the very start of the month was the Pike Run Community Night in California. Geology students from California University had been conducting stream studies throughout the semester and presented on their findings on the quality of the water in comparison to the surrounding landscape. When school begins again, we will be coordinating a stream clean up of Pike Run (a tributary of the Monogahela) with the Geology club to maintain the quality of the stream.
We took a hike on the Warrior Trail for work one day to familiarize ourselves with this great amenity to the region. In hopes to further promote the trail and see what trail work we could do in the near future, we were able to complete 3 miles of the historic route. Unfortunately for us, we came to a barbed wire fence that prevented us from traveling further. Apparently landowners are having concerns of hikers on their farms and the trail has been rerouted. After providing feedback to the Warrior Trail Association, they were grateful for our suggestions and are looking forward to the corps helping on trail improvements soon.
The Fayette County Children’s Water Day Festival has been an event that the Corps members here in Connellsville have been doing for several years now. In an effort to educate middle school aged children on water filtration and the water cycle, we created a display and poster to make the kids excited about water quality. Needless to say, the task was a lot more difficult than I thought. There were several other organizations there; most had live animals such as owls and hawks, snakes, and other waterfowl. If I were a kid, I’d go for the animals too. We managed to reach over 100 kids at our table though and it was a lot of fun!
The California Action Team has determined that they would like to have a big community fundraiser in the form of River Fest this summer. All proceeds will go to park improvements and constructing a trail in their town to make it more attractive to visitors as well as residents. I will be helping to secure live music, street vendors, fireworks, and a whole mess of other fun activities. So far I have made connections with so many people in the town that are excited about the event and are very supportive of the River Town Program, I am really looking forward to helping out the community and helping to plan River Fest.
