CentennialFest – Celebrating 100 Years of Volunteers
By Matt Waurio
Community ran deep at PATC’s CentennialFest, with around 150 members together for a weekend of learning, stories, and time outdoors. From the first arrivals Friday afternoon at Caroline Furnace near Luray, Va., volunteers were ready to help. Despite the heat, a couple dozen members had already checked in with the friendly parking and registration teams before 3 p.m. With prominent name tags on lanyards, everyone was off to enjoy a weekend of community and celebration.
On Friday evening, Mills Kelly drew a crowd of almost 40 people to the central building for his happy-hour discussion, “A Hiker’s History of the Appalachian Trail.” His research into the food, gear, mindset, and rich community of early 1900s hikers inspired plenty of laughter and glances at neighbors in disbelief. One surprise: PATC members once regularly hiked in full-length cotton or wool dresses and heels or in 3-piece suits complete with matching hats. Another shock from the era was the size of early PATC outings, which often included over 50 people camping together for overnight trips!
For both evenings, our CentennialFest campfires nearly reached the numbers of old. Despite intermittent rain, our gatherings featured food, drink, song, stories, and dancing flames. Animated conversations continued well into the night, as varied as Diplomatic Corp tales to the trout breeding trends in nearby George Washington National Forest streams to the finer points of crosscut saw steel quality. Many thanks to everyone who joined in, especially PATC’s-own sing-along band and our skilled fire tender, Jim Tomlin.
Saturday brought with it the bulk of CentennialFest classes and meetings, and the facility was bustling shortly after sunrise. Amid the relative chill in the air, warm showers refreshed the soul and wiped away smoke and sweat of the humid day prior. Both the late-night revelers and early risers bumped elbows at the spring-loaded coffee carafe where, again, the variety of conversation amazed—though this time the fixation was clearly on outdoor access and other issues specific to PATC. Our dedicated PATC volunteers were on the clock.
The day’s classes offered plenty of ways to build skills and get involved. First aid, crosscut skills, chainsaw skills, trail maintenance classes, invasive plant identification, Tuscarora Trail history, and GIS were but some of the many classes taught. Dozens attended individual sessions, and some participants faced the difficult choice between two or three classes they wanted to take. The tragedy of choice!
Three sessions particularly stood out to me: H. Shindle’s Tuscarora Trail (TT) history, Pete Minderman’s presentation on PATC’s Lands Management program, and from the Cadillac Crew, Dan and Ellen Feer’s Trail Maintenance lessons.
H. Shindle explained how the TT began as an alternative to the AT during a difficult period in the 1960s, before becoming PATC’s own long-distance trail in the 1990s. Not many outdoor clubs can claim something so exceptional as a long trail of their own and hearing about the dedication of the hundreds of people who have managed its rugged terrain over the decades was both humbling and inspiring. Like the AT, the TT is more than a route through the woods; it is a lasting example of what a community can build and maintain together.
The Cadillac Crew’s trail maintenance session brought that same spirit of stewardship directly onto the trail. Led by Dan and Ellen Feer, participants geared up in brightly-colored shirts, helmets, eye protection, sturdy pants, and gloves before heading to install water bars and clear drainage routes. The diligent crew listened carefully, then got to work, putting decades of trail maintenance experience into practice one shovel push and rake pull at a time. Unlike sessions focused on learning through listening, this one showed what stewardship looks like in action. Clearing a drainage route or installing a water bar might seem like a small task, but done properly, it's an act of love that helps protect the trail from erosion and keeps it usable for years to come.
More focused on the future was Pete Minderman, who led a presentation focused on the work of PATC’s Lands Committee, which manages the Club’s 3,000 acres of conservation land, identifies future land holdings, works with other land conservation organizations, and acquires land for the club. The work of his team is complex and takes time, and his presentation was a reminder that protecting outdoor access takes work well beyond the trail itself. Pete has his hands full and identified areas where additional volunteers could help, including confirming trail easements, walking PATC-owned land boundaries each year, and assisting in identifying land parcels of opportunity. These are practical ways members can help protect the places that make outdoor experiences possible for the future.
Of course, our Saturday culminated in two major events: the awards ceremony and the CentennialFest feast! Intermittent rain moved the awards ceremony indoors, but it did not dampen the celebration. Award recipients received well-deserved recognition, often calling up their family members and PATC friends onto the stage for group photos. Iva Gillet, the recipient of this year’s Myron Avery award and co-planner for Centennial Fest, was the final award recipient.
CentennialFest was a reminder that PATC is more than the trails we maintain and the lands we protect. It is the people who come to learn, share experiences, build friendships, and keep that work going. Whether you attended a class, joined a campfire conversation, or learned about a new way to volunteer, you helped strengthen the community that makes outdoor access possible.
And if the weekend left you wanting to do more, there are plenty of ways to get involved – from learning a new trail skill to helping care for PATC’s lands. The next century of the Club will be built by people who carry the spirit of the first: people who show up.