Excellent Partnerships: WA Reading Corps cleans up at Northwest Trek

by Kristina Mageau

On May 4th, the Washington Reading Corps (WRC) teamed up with the Northwest Washington Reading Corps to complete an amazing service project.  The 77 WRC team members joined the other corps at Northwest Trek Wildlife Park for six hours of hard work around park restoration.

Jessica Moore, the Conservation Program Coordinator at Northwest Trek, described what a great job the WRC did. “…the Core Area trail crew cleaned… park pathways, spread numerous bark chip piles and blocked several social trails that had been created by visitors.  This crew helped to clean up the Park pathways that were covered with debris in the January storm.”

Due to the large size of the WRC and the excellent work ethic of the team, they accomplished an extraordinary amount in one day.  Moore continued, “This crew helped to… cut back stinging nettles and other vegetation on the trail edges along our most used trails in the Nature Trail system… This work was a continued effort to remove storm debris as well as an effort to tidy up the exhibit space and make it new and interesting for the resident bears… The crew… removed around 6 yards of unwanted vegetation… This project helped to clean up and reuse storm debris and make it into shelter for small mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians that naturally occur in the exhibit space. “

This Eatonville service project is just one example of the many inspiring projects the WRC team does during their ten and a half month contract.

A previous service project was another joint effort to help the community.  Their partner in the mission to aid Left Foot Organics was the Youth in Service team.  Both teams are located in Thurston County, in the Community Youth Services (CYS) building.

The WRC serves five other counties besides Thurston; the list also includes Lewis, Grays Harbor, Kitsap, Pierce, and Mason counties.  Another group the WRC assisted was an organization that shares a similar vision, the South Sound Reading Foundation.  According to Djuna Davis, the WRC Team Coordinator, “The overarching goal of our program is to help eradicate illiteracy in Washington schools and empower students with the awesomeness of reading!”