Job Corps students make difference at nature center

After working two shifts overnight, Jesse Graham was at Maine Audubon’s Fields Pond Nature Center in Holden Saturday morning helping fellow Penobscot Job Corps students with trail maintenance as part of National Make a Difference Day.

“It feels better to do something for others than for yourself,” he said. Though he admitted he was tired and the work was physically demanding, Graham felt it was all worth it.

Penobscot Job Corps students like Graham fanned out around the city and state Saturday to take part in National Make a Difference Day, which was founded by USA Today.

“When you answer the call to serve those in need, you offer hope and fill your own life with greater purpose,” President Bush told participants around the country in a statement released Saturday.

Spurred by the message, Job Corps students in Fred Schmidt’s building maintenance program worked hard through the day helping the nature center’s John Wyatt make trails more handicapped-accessible.

Because of the natural beauty of the area, the center is a popular spot for area school field trips. Students in wheelchairs, however, have been limited to areas directly around the main building.

Though bringing the trails to complete accessibility is beyond the scope of the center right now, the immediate goal is to focus on a few short trails and work on making those as good as possible.

Job Corps students visited the site last month and saw an opportunity to help the staff of the center participate in Make a Difference Day, and fulfill their course requirements for community service all in one project.

The nature center has few staff people, and it relies on the help of volunteers for most trail maintenance. Such work is a perfect match for students working with Schmidt in the Job Corps building maintenance program because part of their focus is on general landscaping.

On Saturday, students built a rock wall along a particularly steep section of trail to help divert spring runoff and the inevitable erosion, and they spread more than 300 feet of crusher dust along a rocky section of trail to help ease wheelchair traffic.

Wyatt said the nature center would have upgraded the trails eventually, but not so quickly. “It would have been me plugging away at it, but it definitely wouldn’t be done,” he said.

Judy Marksowsky, director of the center, was impressed with what the students accomplished in about 18 hours.

“Their hard work will enable children in a wheelchair, with help from an attendant, to get up to a beautiful, rocky stream bed,” she said.

Volunteering opportunities for Job Corps students on Make a Difference Day did not end with trail maintenance.

Students assisted Bangor and Orono public works with much needed projects, volunteered at a local thrift shop, and prepared a public supper at Hartland Fun Days as part of a project to raise funds for a new American Legion Hall.