Wednesday, Aug 22, 2007
About 150 participants helped celebrate the Student Conservation Association’s 50th anniversary at Great Smoky Mountains National Park on Thursday, August 16th.
A special highlight was the naming of the 50,000th SCA volunteer, 16-year-old Sarah Logan Beasley, who was part of the SCA high school conservation trail crew. The crew rehabilitated the Deep Creek Trail, where they were camped out for a month.
Superintendent Dale Ditmanson was presented an award for the park’s long-standing partnership with SCA and its distinction as SCA’s largest single partner for several decades. Founder Elizabeth Cushman Titus Putnam, who began the organization in 1957 after writing her senior college thesis proposing such a volunteer program, gave a heartwarming address to the audience, which included SCA staff, former and current SCA volunteers, and park employees.
The celebration, along with the shots of the trail crew and the 50,000th volunteer, was profiled on NBC Nightly News “Making a Difference” feature, which was scheduled to air on Friday, August 17th.
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