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With A Little Help From Their Friends

You probably heard that the Scouts built a lot of hiking and biking trails at the SummitCorps back in July 2010, but did you know they also established friendships that will last a lifetime?

In addition, the youth weren’t the only ones making friends. The Boy Scouts of America also cemented their relationship with the National Park Service during the 4 weeks the Arrowmen were hard at work in the New River Gorge.

In fact, Robin Snyder, NPS chief of interpretation and visitor services at the New River Gorge National River, praised the relationships that were created and the impact the project had on the community.

Oh, and she was pretty impressed with the trail building, too. The trails were built to last — which is good news since Scouts are planning to be at the Summit for a long time.

[pullquote]“We’re going to be here for a while,” said Dwayne F., Jr., OA southern regional chief and week 4 national officer. “The [world jamboree] will be here in 2019.”[/pullquote]

The impact SummitCorps had on the New River community is vital as Scouts continue to visit the area in the future. For every jamboree held at the Summit, each attending Scout will donate approximately 6 hours of service work to areas surrounding the Summit. And because of the relationships that the BSA has formed with local communities, finding and completing future service projects will be much simpler than without those relationships in place.

SummitCorps was an all around success. Not only did Scouts learn to build some incredible trail building skills, they also learned about coming together to benefit others.

“It inspired me, and I hope it inspires others,” said Dwayne.

Have you done any service projects in your area? Let us know how you helped out in the comments!

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