Olmsted Parks Conservancy is celebrating the efforts volunteers made in the Frederick Law Olmsted Parks. 2011 marks the most volunteer time in our 23-year history—7000 hours. We rely on our volunteers to help keep the 18 historic Frederick Law Olmsted Parks healthy, clean, mulched and planted so the whole community can enjoy the parks. In 2011, efforts came from 1000 individuals and 45 groups, including 13 businesses, 16 school groups, and 16 non-profit organizations.
Volunteers gave:
- 1700 hours maintaining and building trails
- 1500 hours painting pavilions, weeding, mulching, and picking up trash
- 4000 hours removing invasive plants and planting trees, shrubs and other native plants
We would like to recognize the following volunteers for their extra efforts in 2011:
Individual Park Champion: Mike Smith
This dedicated volunteer gives his time in all parks almost every weekend and often during the week too. Mike has been a volunteer since 1998 and in 2011 volunteered 152 hours.
School Spirit: St Francis High School
This school group has volunteered in Cherokee Park for three years. For 2011, 12 students and 2 teachers volunteered 140 hours.
Good Business Practice: Expeditors International, Inc
This new volunteer group brings employees and their family members to help in Iroquois Park. In just a few months, they worked 69 hours in the historic park.
Neighborly Park Neighbors: Cherokee Triangle Association
Consistently for several years this group has helped with anything from painting to planting in Willow Park. They gave 85 volunteer hours in 2011.
All Around Park Nut Group: KyMBA
This three-year volunteer partner has blazed the trails of Cherokee and Seneca Parks and soon will help with Iroquois Park. For 2011, they worked almost 1000 hours rebuilding a mile-long trail in Cherokee Park. The work included moving and placing thousands of pounds of stone to build a retaining wall, three switch back trail walls and placing stones to better stabilize wet areas.
All Around Park Nut: Tracy Keller
Over four years, Tracy has provided her time in almost every Olmsted Park. She helped promote volunteerism in Olmsted Parks at events and fairs; and she completed training to become a Park Naturalist, a volunteer leader program. Tracy volunteered 32 hours in 2011 and this year has committed to raised money for the Olmsted Parks by running on Fred’s Team as part of the Kentucky Derby Festival miniMarathon.
We would also like to give special mention to volunteers who donated 6 or more hours in 2011.
Thank you to all of our volunteers! Frederick Law Olmsted designed great parks for our community to enjoy but it takes a community to keep them beautiful. We greatly appreciate the contribution of time these volunteers gave to these treasured green spaces.
Volunteers are always needed! Take a look at our upcoming events to see how you can get involved today!
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