CV Magazine Spring 2018 by hjnews1

SPRING 2018

SERVING THE VALLEY Residents give selflessly in service to others

SPRING 2018

Publisher David Welsh

in this issue This edition of "Cache Valley" examines just a sliver of those who work tirelessly in the backgrounds of our communities. Volunteers can be found serving in just about every area of daily life, and the work they perform is often vital to organizations. The quote on the cover from Wally Odd highlights one approach to how we should view volunteerism and the need to get involved within our communities, organizations and causes we are passionate about.

Editor John Zsiray Contributors Katherine Taylor Amy Macavinta Sean Dolan Kevin Opsahl Eli Lucero Sales Manager Clayne Liechty Cache Valley magazine is published twice annually by Cache Valley Publishing LLC and inserted in The Herald Journal newspaper. Please write to: Cache Valley magazine P.O. Box 487 Logan, UT 84323-0487

4 6 10

Mike Hatch

Through the Keys

Wally Odd

Obligation to Serve

Bruce McCormick

Service with Precision

Or email John Zsiray at jzsiray@hjnews.com to make comments or to order photo reprints. To advertise, please call Clayne Liechty at (435) 752-2121 or email cliechty@hjnews.com. All rights reserved. Reproduction of Cache Valley magazine in whole or part is strictly prohibited without consent of the editor or publisher.

Volume 15, Number 1

14 18 Linda Keith

More than a Meal

Ian Butler

Labor of Love

Spring 2018

Through the Keys Senior unlocks memories through piano recitals

It’s a quiet Thursday afternoon at

Sunshine Terrace, but 94-year-old Shirley Spence is somewhere else. Mike Hatch is visiting, playing the songs she grew up with on the piano. She remembers when

He quickly realized his parents weren’t

the only ones enjoying the music. “That same feeling shows up for other people in these old songs,” Hatch said. Now, more than 30 years later, Hatch is

“Not only has he played just every

Thursday, without fail, but he has also come and played for different events — Mother’s Day programs, Father’s Day programs, open houses, dances,” Bennett

her father used to sing in her childhood

the same age as many of the people he

said. “He’s played for almost every type of

home, the sound of his beautiful tenor

plays for. Hatch and his wife, Donna, now

event that we’ve ever had here.”

voice. She remembers being a nursing

in their 65th year together, recently moved

student in the 1940s and going dancing

to Pioneer Valley Lodge, another local

203 years old when someone asks her

with her friends every weekend.

retirement community. Although he doesn’t

age, because once you hit 100, “it’s all

drive anymore, he still volunteers regularly.

the same.” Boss isn’t quite as old as she

Spence isn’t the only one — for many Sunshine Terrace residents, Hatch’s visits are a welcome trip down memory lane. “He plays all our old songs,” Spence said. “He plays a lot of the tunes that we just love.”

“Now we go and pick him up,” said Katie

says, at a spritely 103, and is known at

Stauffer, volunteer coordinator at Sunshine

Terrace Grove for her glitzy looks, often

Terrace.

accessorized with makeup and matching

Stauffer said residents are always excited to see him.

Hatch plays the oldies, mostly music

Carmen Boss, a resident, says she’s

“He’s someone they can relate to, and

earrings. Boss doesn’t leave her room for just any visitor, but when Hatch plays, she can

from the ‘30s through the ‘50s, songs like

they’ve built a relationship with,” Stauffer

hear it from her room and comes to listen

"Springtime in the Rockies," "Moon River"

said.

whenever she’s feeling up to it.

and "Happy Wanderer." Hatch also grew up dancing.

Twice a month, Hatch plays for a dance at Sunshine Terrace. For an hour, resi-

“In my younger years, dancing was the main activity outside of a show or a high school football or basketball game,” Hatch said.

dents come and dance with each other, staff, and visiting guests. “He doesn’t just bring resident morale up, but the staff, too,” Stauffer said.

Hatch has been volunteering at nursing

Hatch also plays every Thursday at Ter-

homes throughout the valley since 1981.

race Grove, a neighboring assisted living

He first started playing for his own aging

community.

parents when they were moved to a nursing home after his father had a stroke. “From then on, the only avenue they had

“He brings so much joy to our residents,” said Nancy Bennett, director of recre-

Kristie Wilkinson, director of nursing, said this is a common response. “If you say, ‘we have a program today,’ and it’s someone they don’t know, some will come out,” Wilkinson said. “But if we say Mike Hatch is coming, there’s a better turnout.” Hatch has played since he was a young boy. He credits his mother for giving him the motivation to continue learning. “My mother made me a deal,” Hatch

ational therapy. “He plays the music they

said. “One morning, it was 20 below zero. I

to the outside was me playing the piano, or

remember, that their parents played in their

didn’t know the music teacher had told her

somebody else doing something that they

home.”

she should quit wasting my time and her

would recognize and have some joy in,” Hatch said.

Bennett said you don’t get many volunteers like Hatch anymore.

money on lessons.” Continued on Page 17

STORY BY KATHERINE TAYLOR • PHOTO BY ELI LUCERO

Obligation to Serve W

Valley man invests in helping those with mental illness

ally Odd sat down for an interview on the back deck of his North Logan home with a heavy heart on a recent Friday morning. Spring was in bloom and the sky was clear. Nearly the entire valley was in view from the hills of the east bench, framed by a breathtaking panorama of the snow-capped Wellsville Mountains in the distance. But it wasn’t a happy morning. A candidate of the 1st District Mental Health Court had died over night. Odd said the woman allegedly went out drinking on Thursday night and took Seroquel, a prescribed antipsychotic that treats schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The sudden loss of life hit particularly close to home for Odd. His son — whom he described as tall, gregarious and outgoing — had bipolar schizophrenia and died of similar causes. “This is why we do what we do,” Odd said. “It was just a mix of almost the same situation with my son that hit me more this morning.” For 10 years, Odd has volunteered with the 1st District Mental Health Court and later co-founded the nonprofit Friends of the 1st District Mental Health Court, which helps candidates with their utilities, housing, food, counseling and other living expenses. The decade of volunteerism came after a long, diverse career. Odd served as an Air Force Squadron Commander, corporate officer of a language translation company and spent five years at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy under Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Upon his return to Cache Valley, Odd

Spring 2018

said the local affiliate of the National Alliance of Mental Illness asked him to help out with the Mental Health Court. Odd was working at the time as the director of alumni relations at Utah State University and he wasn’t sure if he would have time for more work. That uncertainty didn’t last. “I think we have an obligation for the room that we take up on this Earth to volunteer and to help,” Odd said. “It can be uncomfortable. It can be time consuming. It can cut into our lives. But we need to do it.” Tangentially similar to Drug Court, Mental Health Court is a speciality court program that assists eligible defendants in addressing commingled mental health and criminal justice issues in an attempt to reduce recidi-

vism while achieving mental health recovery, according to the Cache County Attorney’s Office website. It is typically a two-and-a-half year program that accepts candidates with serious, persistent mental health conditions who are charged with misdemeanor or felony offense. The 1st District Mental Health Court convenes on Wednesdays and it looks and feels different from regular court. A typical courtroom is strict and rigid — you don’t want to look sideways, Odd said — but exchanges in Mental Health Court are more human and more focused on situational awareness, like if the candidate is living on somebody’s couch or if they have enough money for food and medicine. “When you come into the court, you’ll see the judge call somebody up and say, ‘How was your week?’” Odd said. “Now, I’ll guarantee you that doesn’t happen in a normal court.” During his time as a mental health court volunteer, Odd said he was offered a job as executive vice president of Morrell Agro Industries, a public limited company that aims to provide food security in Ethiopia. So, he traveled to Africa for a bit. He thought of his son, and other people with mental illness, one day

STORY & PHOTOS BY SEAN DOLAN

as he was heading down a hill behind a donkey pulling a cart of wooden boards. The boards slipped over top of the donkey and the animal was pushed to the ground. Odd told his driver that they needed to help the donkey, to which to driver said, “We don’t help donkeys.” Odd replied, “Yes, we do.” As he was pulling the boards off the donkey, he imagined one board was housing for an individual with mental illness. One board was debt — another represented finances. Without the heavy weight of the wooden boards, the donkey was able to get back on its feet. When he came back to Utah, Odd said he implemented that philosophy as president of Friends of the 1st District Mental Health Court The nonprofit works to ease those situational issues. Scott Steinmetz, utilization coor-

dinator for Bear River Mental Health and board member for the Friends of 1st District Mental Health Court, said Odd leads the way in making connections with landlords and local employers to find housing and jobs for Mental Health Court candidates. If a candidate can’t afford medication, the nonprofit can help. If a candidate is homeless, the nonprofit can pay for a few nights at a hotel while they find something more permanent. He said Odd has made a big impact. “Quite a few have his own personal cell phone number, and if things arise they know he’s one they can reach out to and he’s there to help guide them,” Steinmetz said. Recently, Odd and others have been working to create a new curriculum to improve the court’s awareness of candidates’ housing, therapy, medicine, insurance, urinalysis and other

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Wally Odd reflects

important metrics. Adult Probation and Parole, Bear River Mental Health, the Cache County Jail, the National Alliance on Mental Health and other organizations report weekly to the Mental Health Court on the status of each candidate. Odd hopes the new criteria — a decision matrix based on an easy-to-use green, yellow and red system — will streamline the reporting process. “You can assimilate information just like this,” Odd said, as he repeatedly snapped his fingers. “The minute the judge sees a yellow on here, we focus like crazy.” The more the the court knows about a candidate, the more the court can help. And if necessary, issues like housing and insurance are taken care of, the candidate can concentrate on the most important issue of all: their mental illness. Odd recalled one

Performance... Understanding... Sensitivity

on his time volunteering with the 1st District Mental Health Court.

patient struggling with mental illness who broke into someone’s house simply to read some books. After going through Mental Health Court, he is now a productive member of society. “They got him back into the court, got him treatment, got him on his meds, got him stabilized,” Odd said. “He got married, he got a job and he moves on.” But all too often, mental illness is ignored and people with mental illness who commit crimes are simply thrown into jail, where their problems only get worse. “Our jails and facilities and prisons in this country are becoming known as centers for those with a mental illness,” Odd said. “More dollars need to be put into treatment and help, the kind of things that facilitate living life the best

possible.” He said people often come out of jail with a $5,000 debt. Sometimes they have no place to stay, no job, no insurance and no way to get medicine. Odd is on a mission to fix the system, one candidate at a time. “Our goal is to not have you back here in a criminal court again, but because of your mental illness, give you a chance to rectify what you did,” Odd said. “It wasn’t because you’re a criminal, it was because of your illness.” Now pushing 70-years-old, Odd said he doesn’t have plans of giving up his volunteerism any time soon. Steinmetz said the man seems to have boundless energy. “I keep asking when he’s going to retire, but I don’t think he ever will,” Steinmetz said. “He just goes and goes.”

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Spring 2018

Service

h t wi

Precision

Finding joy through serving meals to community members Cache Valley resident Bruce McCormick can thank Mother Nature for his involvement with the community nonprofit Loaves and Fishes. One day four years ago, he was walking around town and noticed some signs had blown over. When he went to pick them up, he noticed they were advertising for the twice-monthly meal offered by Loaves and Fishes at Logan’s First Presbyterian Church. “Going through hard times, I decided a free meal might not be a bad thing,” McCormick said. “It’s only half a block from my house, so I decided it’s worth checking out.” McCormick has been eating two Loaves and Fishes meals every month since then, but today he is so much more than a consumer of food, he is a volunteer, making sure the church at 200 West Center is ready to accommodate close to 100 people who just want to come together — regardless of their backgrounds — and break bread. Kathy Chudoba, member of the Loaves and Fishes Board of Directors and meal planner, said McCormick has become known as a friendly and

reliable volunteer. “Bruce is just always there to step in wherever he’s needed,” she said. “He moves quickly. He’s a busy little bee.” “Out of their shells” When McCormick sat down for some of his first Loaves and Fishes meals, he sat by himself often wishing to be left alone to eat. “People would come towards me. I’m like, ‘No, don’t sit with me’ — and they’d end up sitting with me,” McCormick said. “They’d end up being some of the most interesting people I’ve ever met.” Because of that personal transformation, McCormick considers himself one of Loaves and Fishes “wallﬂowers.” “(The meal) brings people out of their shells,” he said. “I’ve seen that with other regulars.” Richard West, a regular patron of Loaves and Fishes, said at first, McCormick was not the type of guy who would initiate conversation. But, “things have changed, there’s no question,” he said. “He’s much more likely to initiate …

I think this was probably always who Bruce was, but perhaps his circle of friends was a little tighter,” West said. “Now he has a circle of friends that has expanded to include so many people from the community.” McCormick has come to realize Loaves and Fishes is more than just a “good meal.” “What I found there is it’s about community, too … it’s bringing people together to share a meal,” he said. Chudoba said Loaves and Fishes meals are all about “community building.” “Volunteers are told that just as important as preparing and serving the meal is sitting down, eating and getting to know others,” she said. “We fill hearts as well as bellies.” McCormick recalled one girl he met at a Loaves and Fishes meal who had special needs and was in a wheelchair. “It’s extreme; she’s can’t use her hands … she can’t feed herself. I’m not sure if she’s even cognizant of what’s going on,” McCormick said. “Watching her, I’d see her react to certain things and realize there’s some-

STORY BY KEVIN OPSAHL • PHOTOS BY JOHN ZSIRAY

thing going on in there.” One day, McCormick walked by the girl and said hello. “She just turned around and smiled at me and that was it,” McCormick said. “I make it a point to not judge people — that’s just one big lesson to learn there.”

various community groups and attend a.m., McCormick helps direct a team different churches across the valley. of volunteers to set up tables and Paul Heins, who was pastor at chairs in a very precise manner that First Presbyterian when McCormick has added a degree of professionalism started attendand consising, rememtency to the bers him as a way that the person who just dining room wanted to help. is arranged. “I know the drill” “I think he “He came The more time McCormick spent has a heart for up with the observing the operation while sharing service,” Heins best way to a meal, the more he saw what it took said. “So he lay out the to put the event together and realized just made himtables and he could pitch in. self more and the chairs As a parishioner of First Presbymore involved.” to maximize terian, McCormick says he has an McCormick space in Bruce McCormick measures the distance between tables advantage in serving as he knows his does not cook between but prior to a Loaves and Fishes meal. way around the building. Many of the meals — his to get the twice-monthly volunteers come from job is to help set up before meals maximum number of tables,” Chudoba and then put said. “We actually created a scale them away. drawing, and we use that with the volMeals typiunteers to make sure that everything cally include is lined up perfectly … Bruce will use a approximately tape measure and make sure that the 105 chairs and space between the tables is exactly as 18 tables. it needs to be.” “I’m there McCormick said he is not an engievery time. neer by trade, but learned some basic I’m probably principles in high school and college. there more “When I started, the meal was small than anybody,” enough that tables would be set up McCormick randomly and it didn’t matter,” he said. said. “I know “But as it was growing, I could see a the drill.” potential need for something more Heins said systematic.” McCormick McCormick said a tape measure is the kind of proves useful in setting up the tables. volunteer who “The tables are crowded enough “doesn’t wait that if it’s not fairly systematic you for someone have extra room or you’re going to be to tell him what too close another,” he said. The to do.” McCormick feels it’s tremendously Arriving at important for the tables and chairs 295 West 300 South • Logan • 435-752-7923 Mon - Sat 9-6 • www.logangreenhouse.com the church used for the meals to be set up proparound 10 erly.

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“I’ve had hard jobs where you’re so physically beat up that (volunteering is) the farthest thing from your mind,” he said. Now that helping out with Loaves and Fishes is standard practice, McCormick can’t imagine not volunteering. “It grows on you. It becomes a part of you,” he said. Michelle Welch, a Loaves and Fishes board member, said McCormick was an essential part of the meal and volunteering comes natural for him. “He would just pitch in and just start doing,” she said. “We started asking him if he would do more, and he was A table diagram created by Bruce McCormick is seen prior to a Loaves and Fishes meal. very open to the idea of helping more and more.” “The more you streamline it and To his knowledge, members of McMcCormick added jokingly, “I got in keep glitches out of it, the more posiCormick’s Illinois family did not do a lot trouble because I was doing too much. tive of an experience it is,” he said. of volunteering. (They wanted me to) crack the whip McCormick said Loaves and Fishes “I grew up where it’s farmland and and not do so meals have “opened my eyes” to factories,” Mcmuch handsvolunteering and he would like to seek Cormick said. on.” additional service opportunities. “We lived on a West is small farm and “It grows on you” both my parents worked. With six kids, appreciative of McCormick’s volunteerism. Having lived in Cache Valley for 35 it’s full-time work.” “Bruce accomplishes something years, McCormick has read about McCormick’s own job history played that is greatly needed, and any volunpeople in the community volunteera role as his first job in the Beeteer organization needs someone like ing and never thought he’d be one of hive State was at a feed mill, filling Bruce,” West said. those people. 100-pound bags and packing them.

“It grows on you. It becomes part of you.”

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Spring 2018

More than a Meal Food delivery oﬀers volunteer a chance to build relationships If you spend five minutes with Linda Keith, it is clear she is a people person, and a number of people in Cache Valley get to reap the benefits of that. Keith is a long-time Cache County Senior Citizens Center Meals on Wheels volunteer who delivers a hot meal to several seniors in North Logan and Smithfield throughout the week. She also drives a van full of veterans to the George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salt Lake City each week and is one of many volunteers who staff Global Village Gifts. “It is mostly to amuse and entertain myself,” she said. Keith, who grew up in Twin Falls, first came to Logan in the ‘60s to attend Utah State University. She had always thought Seattle looked like a nice place to be, so after she earned her journalism degree in 1967, she eagerly left Utah for the Northwest. “I piled everything into my little Mustang and off I went,” she said. She spent some time working for a newspaper in Seattle before coming back to Utah to take a job at the Leader in Tremonton. And a year after that, she was offered a public relations job at USU.

I was there when Old Main burned down and I had to field all of the calls — I kind of felt like Howard Cosell,” Keith said. “I was giving the play by play and it got kind of emotional.” Her claim to fame was a 1969 story she wrote about a woman who worked as a groundskeeper, something that was really unusual then, she said. The New York Times picked up both her story and her photos, something that thrills her to this day. “In 2002 I jumped out of an early retirement window,” Keith said. “It was a way to clear out all of the old, dead wood.” She and her husband immediately moved to Morocco, where he was working on a water preservation project. While he was at work, she volunteered twice a week at an English language school. It was the perfect thing for her — all she had to do was sit there and be available to talk to people who wanted to practice their English skills. A few years later, after making their way back to Logan, Linda became acquainted with Meals on Wheels after setting up the service for her motherin-law. Throughout the week, the senior center prepares a healthy, balanced

meal which is offered at the center, allowing for a time of companionship with other seniors and community members in attendance. For those who are homebound, volunteers load up cars and trucks every morning with meals that are carefully prepared to meet the individual dietary needs of each person on their assigned route. Keith’s route currently serves 10 people in six homes, a number that will ebb and ﬂow based on need, she said. In addition to Keith, the center has around 80 volunteers delivering meals to roughly 200 people throughout the valley. Keith first started delivering meals to seniors 13 years ago. She wasn’t doing much of anything, she said, and she saw it as a “payback” for the service her mother-in-law received. But, like everything else in her life, delivering meals has become a source of friendship. “It is such fun, the people you meet, and the stories you hear,” she said. Her route can be completed in 45 minutes, but it usually takes her about an hour and a half. Very often, people who are receiving meals are content to just collect their meal at the door with a grateful “thank you,” but others crave a visitor as

STORY BY AMY MACAVINTA • PHOTOS BY ELI LUCERO Spring 2018

much or even more than the meal itself, she said. Keith delivers meals to a woman from Denmark who is just delighted to share stories about her upbringing. Then, there is the woman who is often standing in front of her window when Keith pulls into the driveway. “She is just as spry as they come,” she said. “She has this horseshoe knocker and I love to use it.” Keith was positively joyful describing the race she has with the woman each week to see who can get to the door first. The woman finds great pleasure in opening the door just as Keith is reaching for the knocker and is tickled when she wins. Meals on Wheels volunteers are required to set eyes on each and every

person they deliver to, and sometimes these interactions are just as important to families as the meal itself. Keith said she knows of one family who said their mother was capable of making her own meals, but they really wanted someone to check on her each day. “I take that part seriously,” she said. There are plenty of scares if someone leaves home for a few hours and forgets to cancel their lunch, but on other occasions, that daily visit is critical. One such time was when she stopped at a home she had been delivering meals to for three years. The woman met her at the door that day in a state of utter confusion. Keith reported her condition to the senior

center office, and someone there was able to contact family. Until recently, Keith was delivering meals on her route twice a week, but she has cut back to one day. “I feel like I am slowing down, but I am too young to slow down,” said Keith, who is in her seventies. “But, I can reset my priorities.” Even with an attempt to cut back, Keith drives a van full of veterans to Salt Lake every week so they can attend medical appointments at the VA and volunteers once a week at Global Village. While she doesn’t have military ties, Keith said the weekly trip is another place where she has the ability to give back, and of course it's another source of friendship.

Meals on Wheels volunteer Linda Keith delivers food to ElRay Anderson at his Logan home. 16

Spring 2018

Continued from Page 5

Help us feed tHose in need donations are needed year round

As his family gathered around the stove to warm up, his mother made her offer. “She said, ‘If you practice, we’ll do chores.’ I said, ‘You’ve got a deal,’” Hatch said. For two hours every morning, instead of milking cows in the cold, Hatch stayed in and practiced the piano. “If it hadn’t been for her, I probably wouldn’t have finished,” Hatch said. “The music teacher would have kicked me out.” Instead, Hatch kept practicing and taking lessons. He kept improving. He plays completely by ear, without any sheet music. “If I can sing the melody, then I can play it,” Hatch said. Hatch recognizes that his ability to give this gift to people is unique. “It’s a gift that I have that most people don’t,” Hatch said. “I can still do it and do it fairly well. It always brings happiness to

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the people I play for, especially those that are maybe wheelchair-bound but can still see and hear.” One memory in particular is especially meaningful to him. Hatch recalls going from room-to-room performing for residents who weren’t able to leave their rooms to hear him play. “The last one was a severe Alzheimer’s patient who hadn’t made a voluntary movement or sound in years,” Hatch said. As he started to play an old song, he saw her start to mouth the words. “The music’s what did that,” Hatch said. “She was tapping her finger to the rhythm. After I quit playing, then she was back in her cloud.” After more than 30 years, Hatch is still passionate about playing music, because he understands what it means to the people he plays for. “This was their youth,” Hatch said. “When they were singing and dancing, these were the songs.”

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Labor of Love

Valley native works to keep trails accessible through volunteer alliance The freedom of a childhood bicycle has led Logan native Ian Butler on a lifetime pursuit of exhilarating rides and pushed him into a career built around the outdoors — and never having to wear a suit to work — all while maintaining a passion for giving back. “As a kid, my bike was my tool for adventure and exploration. I naturally gravitated toward exploring the mountains on my bicycle,” Butler said. “Nowadays it is the basis of enjoyment and the fun I have riding the trails and the therapy you get from just being outside.” Butler pursued a degree at Utah State University after graduating from Logan High and kept his eye on finding a job he could enjoy going to day-in and day-out while balancing his passion for mountain biking and being outside. After finding the perfect career with Logan-based Jagaloon — an outdoor products reseller — Butler went to work helping the Cache Trails Alliance create a corps of volunteers to maintain singletrack routes and other trails throughout the valley that he grew up riding. Approaching its second year, CTA is a nonprofit utilizing efforts from private organization and volunteers to bolster established programs from the U.S.

Forest Service and Cache County to supplement the maintenance through fundraising efforts to support those entities. “With Cache Valley being my home for all the years that it has, I just wanted to improve and open up different trail opportunities for the people that we have here in the valley. I also wanted to maintain and preserve the trails we already have to make sure people know about how great the trail network is around here,” Butler said. As the trail adoption coordinator for CTA, Butler said it has become a labor of love maintaining and servicing the trails. “I think it is almost selfish. Even though it is volunteer work, I am doing and improving things I use myself,” Butler said. “By spending the time volunteering my efforts, it provides a sustainable method of recreation.” As an avid mountain biker, Butler is on a trail at least three to four times per week and has found joy in adopting two of his favorite trails in Logan Canyon — Ricks Canyon and Peterson Hollow. “The feeling I get from maintaining the trails that I ride is great. I think the therapy you get from participating or just being out in nature is also my main motivation in volunteering in

those spots,” Butler said. “There is a level of commitment and dedication to preserve the wilderness trails we have here in Cache County that I can be part of and help get others involved in as well.” While CTA is an independent group, Butler said the integration with established programs is vital to making their mission sustainable. Dayton Crites, Cache County trails coordinator, said having groups like CTA getting involved with coordination and trail maintenance efforts makes a difference as efforts in the past — while appreciated — were often not managed well. “Everywhere that has great trail networks are places that have strong volunteer corps. Cache has a strong core of volunteers and there has been little to no coordination of those serving,” Crites said. “What CTA is doing — by having it all planned out — is allowing more volunteers to get involved through organized and planned maintenance on the trails.” Crites said through planning and coordination with the Forest Service, groups like CTA are better positioned to do more work that is impactful to the trails network across the valley. In conjunction with Crites and Zach Maughan, the trails and dispersed recreation manager with the Uinta-

STORY & PHOTOS BY JOHN ZSIRAY

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Wasatch-Cache National Forest, CTA hosted a trail adoption event where nearly 40 of the 77 adoptable trails in the area were adopted by volunteers. “The amount of trails adopted this year compared to the previous year of six trails was pretty exciting to see,” Butler said. “We are excited to get people involved and motivated. Everyone has their own trail they are passionate about and will be maintaining and coordinating volunteer efforts on.” With six trails adopted in the first year of CTA, Butler said the group amassed roughly 250 volunteer hours, which he hopes to “blow out of the water” after quadrupling the number of trails with the event this year. Maughan said the partnership with CTA is mutually beneficial as he can focus on more technical issues and plan general maintenance for Forest Service crews to attend to while allowing the adoptees to tend to the more routine tasks on any given trail. “Volunteers get a lot done and do a lot of work,” Maughan said. “I think the overall takeaway is having people engaged and caring about the forest is a good thing and the work they provide helps immensely in reaching all our trails. They are a critical part in maintaining our trails.” Maughan said the Adopt a Trail program has volunteers go out three times a year — after participating in maintenance workshops — working as the eyes and ears, reporting back downed trees or washouts on the adopted trails. In addition to maintenance of adopted trails, Butler said an important goal of CTA was to do one major project each year in conjunction with the Forest Service. He said they are

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An Adopt-a-Trail sign is seen at the mouth of Green Canyon.

excited to participate this fall in a reroute of the Upper Jardine Juniper Trail in Logan Canyon. While many of those participating with CTA are cyclists, Butler and others are working to incorporate other trail users into the mix to broaden the trails that get adopted and maintained. “We welcome any outdoor user. We are looking to all user groups from bicycles, hikers, trail runners, horsemen and motorized groups as well. We are open to all trial access users,” he said. Butler said CTA has begun working with some of the ultra runners who

have committed to working on some of the backcountry trails that bicycles cannot access. As the organization moves forward, Butler is optimistic for the future growth of the trail adoption, and regardless of where people serve, he urges people to engage in volunteerism. “I think bottom line is that if you are passionate about something and willing to volunteer time, you need to make an effort to find out what groups are participating in those activities you love. Give yourself excuses or tools where you can participate in the community,” he said.

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April Showers A raindrop clings to a tulip after an April rain shower in Cache Valley. (Photo by John Zsiray) 22

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