Veterans Weekend: Lack of snow fails to thaw Ohiopyle camaraderie
In part of Ohiopyle’s first Veteran Winter Weekend, Liz Tavares-McCreight of Beaver County, also known as “Earth Mama” and Ohiopyle State Park volunteer walks in Sugarloaf Knob with a group of other volunteers and veterans on Saturday.
Rebecca Devereaux|Herald-Standard
Ohiopyle Winter Veterans Weekend participants are (front row, from left) Wendy Fonner of Chalk Hill; veteran Bryan Fonner of Chalk Hill; Rose Bando, Ohiopyle State Park Environmental Education Specialist; Martha Alexander of Chalk Hill; Liz Tavares-McCreight of Beaver County; and Barb Wallace, Ohiopyle State Park Environmental Education Specialist, and (back row, from left) Veteran George Kukic of North Versailles; volunteer Jon Geortz of West Mifflin; volunteer Scott Patton of Venetia; and veteran Gregg Hardy of Hopwood.
Rebecca Devereaux|Herald-Standard
Jon Goertz of West Mifflin, a Friends of Ohiopyle volunteer shares a moment with Liz Tavares-McCreight of Beaver County, also a volunteer, during a hike in Sugarloaf Knob in part of Ohiopyle’s Winter Veteran Weekend on Saturday.
Rebecca Devereaux|Herald-Standard
Ohiopyle State Park volunteer Scott Patton, of Venetia, PA (left) chats with veteran Gregg Hardy, of Hopwood during a hike in Sugarloaf Knob in part of the first Veteran Winter Weekend. Due to the warmer weather, an alternative schedule was created for the weekends festivities bringing 14 veterans and volunteers to participate in the event at Ohiopyle State Park Friday and Saturday.
When the Friends of Ohiopyle (FOO) group developed the concept of having a winter weekend for veterans, they anticipated there being snow on what normally would be a blustery February weekend.
Unseasonably above-average temperatures brought an onslaught of warm breezes and rain to our region, but the odd weather didn’t deter the dedicated group of FOO volunteers, and their registered veterans, from enjoying their special weekend.
“It was a great weekend and everyone really enjoyed it,” said Barb Wallace, environmental education specialist at Ohiopyle State Park and member of FOO.
According to Wallace, the park gives the group accommodations while FOO pays for food and prepares equipment.
“We couldn’t have done it without FOO,” she said.
Originally, their plans were to incorporate cross-country skiing, tubing and a number of other snow-based activities into the weekend.
Wallace said they ended up “completely changing what we were doing.”
“We ended up going for a really long night hike,” Wallace said.
The crew of about 14 volunteers and veterans hiked the Sproul trail to a frog pond, where they observed frogs and woodcocks. They also incorporated stargazing into the events, which went over well, Wallace said.
“We went to a couple of other special places in the park, a bit off the beaten path,” she said. More than two dozen were originally signed up to participate, though around 10 declined due to the lack of snow, she said.
The winter weekend was the first in a new series of veteran-focused weekends in the park.
Ohiopyle is no stranger, though, to accommodating and featuring events for veterans.
For several years, the Youghiogheny River has been the base of operations for the Ohiopyle chapter of Team River Runner (TRR).
According to their website, Team River Runner believes that every wounded and disabled veteran deserves the opportunity to embrace new challenges, invoke leadership and promote camaraderie.
“Team River Runner provides an outlet to fulfill these beliefs — inviting wounded and disabled war veterans and their families to participate in adaptive paddling programs,” the website says.
Though the officials involved with TRR do a majority of the work, FOO volunteers help with additional details. Wallace said they all agreed they wanted extended opportunities to celebrate veterans.
“Some are coming from far away, and we want to make it worthwhile,” Wallace said.
“We didn’t want to limit our veterans to just river adventures,” she added.
TRR is also operated in alliance with the Pennsylvania Department of Natural Resources. Wallace said they also wanted to increase their veteran offerings, and referred to the confluence as a “perfect storm.”
The next scheduled event is a fly fishing weekend on April 21-23, and a few open spots are still available.
“It’s always a really nice mix of people. You have veterans from just about every arm of service,” Wallace said.
“We’re pretty excited about it, and hoping to do these more often,” she added. “With the response we’ve gotten, it’s becoming pretty important to us.”