AmeriCorps
Environmental Stewardship

Rural Revitalization: Silverton Youth Build a River Trail

“If you let us put our signs up, people might learn something really cool about Silverton, they might like it more, get more excited about being here.” summarizes 10-year old, Evan in his closing remarks to Silverton’s town council members. Evan speaks on behalf of his class’ work to design new interpretive trail signs. For Evan and his classmates, their presentation about geology and history on their interpretive signs represents another task in a long string of research, writing, designing, and editing they have taken on throughout the entire year. Their hope is to gain town approval to install their signs along the Animas River Trail in downtown Silverton. Evan’s work is part of a pioneering service learning program developed by AmeriCorps OSM/VISTA Whitney Gaskill that adapts service learning concepts to the needs of rural K-12 students in Silverton. Gaskill who serves with the Mountain Studies Institute has leveraged $14,500 funding from four funders, $3,750 in in-kind donation from businesses, and involved 110 community volunteers. Recognizing the real impact students can have, Gaskill focused the education program on projects that benefit the Animas River Trail, Silverton’s fledgling trail system. In a community with high poverty (under 18 poverty rate is 29.4%) and a tourism-based economy, the Animas riverfront is currently underutilized and the trails project is part of larger efforts to breathe new life into town. Employing an innovative approach, Gaskill created a program where each grade cohort is working on a service learning project that explicitly ties in to their learning goals at school and also works towards achieving the preexisting Animas River Corridor Revitalization Plan. This innovative tie between education and community impact helped win over teachers and community leaders alike because it helps draw a clear connection between school subjects and their relevance to the real world. Additionally, they know that youth who are involved in community service show increased attendance in school, motivation, confidence, and demonstration of positive lifestyle choices, including the desire to engage in civic and political activities. Furthermore, the program helps build green job skills and empowers new behaviors as participants learn through their work to take more pride in their community and environment. Or, in the words of a Silverton service learning participant, “Wow! We are going to use these seeds to help the earth, I love it! I just love the whole idea!” As a result of Gaskill’s work, over 2,000 hours of student volunteer time was dedicated to the Animas River Trail. High school and kindergarten students teamed up to plant willow trees on a wetland, elementary students created an adventure youth passports and designed interpretive signs while middle-school students helped build over 1000 ft of new trail. County Commissioner Pete McKay claimed, “We had been trying to do this for ten years, it really took getting these kids excited to make any progress on our trails system…for the first time in a long time I feel like it’s going to happen!”