Originally from Cuba and now living in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., 61-year-old Artie Hidalgo worked for the New York City Transit Authority for 36 years before retiring as an assistant general manager in 2010. That year, he started doing trail building to make paths safe and convenient for hikers. Hidalgo now co-leads the Jolly Rovers Trail Crew, an all-volunteer group specializing in wilderness stonework. Below, he talks about his passion.
This post originally appeared on Next Avenue, a PBS website that informs and inspires the 50 + crowd.
I knew volunteering would be an important aspect of my retirement. I also knew I wanted to do stuff outdoors.
An avid hiker, I was always fascinated by the dry stonework used on hiking trails to prevent erosion, as well as how it got there.
Dry stone has been around for thousands of years. Look at the Great Wall of China and the Aqueducts in Rome. They’re such beautiful structures. There’s something primitive about building with natural stone. It’s like sculpture, in a way.
Since 99 percent of the work on U.S. trails is done by volunteers, I developed a game plan to volunteer by doing dry stone building.
In 2010, I joined the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference, a nonprofit that monitors and maintains trails and took a dry stone building course. As soon as I finished, I began volunteering and put in almost 1,000 hours that season. It was the highest number of hours from a volunteer for the group in a single year.
Photo of Artie courtesy of the Jolly Rovers Trail Crew.
One of my jobs was working on a reroute of the Appalachian Trail on Bear Mountain. During the weekdays, there were hardly any volunteers so I had the opportunity to work directly with a professional trail crew that was overseeing volunteer training.
I developed a really close working relationship with them and they would ask me to do stuff that sometimes volunteers wouldn’t want to do because it was really hard, like turning big rocks into little rocks with a sledgehammer.
Toward the end of my first season, one of the guys took me to a site on Bear Mountain. “I need you to build a staircase here,” he said. “It’s probably going to be about 15 or 16 steps.”
I was shocked. Prior to that, I’d only built a two- or three-step staircase. I remember asking, “Tom, do you think I can do this?” He said, “Yeah, I think you can.”
I tell you, I worked for six or seven weeks on this project and it’s still so gratifying.
Sometimes, I walk new volunteers up it when we do an orientation because that staircase is so special to me. But I never think of it as my staircase. I always think of it as being done by all the guys on that crew who inspired me and gave me the opportunity to build it. I’m incredibly grateful to them.
I developed a special chemistry with two of the guys, Chris Ingui and Bob Brunner, and in 2011 the three of us built an all-volunteer crew specifically devoted to stonework, known as The Jolly Rovers.
We started with 12 volunteers who had little or no experience in trail building. We taught them how to do stonework and had an incredible season.
Now there are 23 Jolly Rover volunteers, men and women of all ages, and we have a deep connection that goes beyond stonework. This has become an extended family for all of us.
That’s the thing about my experience doing this kind of work. I’ve done it in New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Tennessee and North Carolina and the quality and caliber of people I’ve met is astonishing. Nobody is pretentious. Nobody has a chip on his shoulder.
Ideally I’d like to see the crew evolve to the point where we can do what we’re doing on a national basis and expand internationally.
I feel so proud about what I’ve done as a volunteer.
I look back on my 36-year career with the Transit Authority and say, “Wow, what was that all about?” But when I look back on the last three years of my life, every structure that I built will outlive me, outlive my sons.
I remember taking my sons to Bear Mountain and they said, “I don’t believe this, Pop! This is awesome!”
They had heard me talk about what we did, but they never saw the magnitude of the structures that we built.
That stuff is going to be around for a long, long time. Nobody is going to put up a parking lot in any of these places. These are protected sites.
And that’s what I feel is so gratifying about it. In today’s modern culture, where else are you going to get the kind of opportunity I’ve had?
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In the NY area and interested in doing trail work? The Jolly Rovers are always looking for volunteers.
Interested in trail work in other parts of the country? Try searching Idealist for opportunities around the U.S. and world.
Meet three sprightly Southern Colorado septuagenarians who won’t stop.
After a long teaching career, Rhoda Cordry still has a spring in her step
Rhoda Cordry, now 78, retired from a satisfying career as a public elementary school teacher in the mid-1980s with no particular plans to take on another big job. But after a friend asked her to attend a community meeting about restoring the town’s unique cold mineral springs she found herself intrigued by a new endeavor.
Cheyenne Spring, one of Manitou, CO’s prized cold mineral springs. Photo courtesy of the Mineral Springs Foundation.
“Manitou is right in the mountains; we can’t grow physically as a town,” explains Rhoda. “And there’s no industry, so we have to do something to keep the economy up as a tourist attraction. The springs are the thing, but they’re hard on the pipes and fountains people put them through—they clog, corrode, eat through them. They need maintenance.”
In 1987, Rhoda and a handful of other concerned locals started the Mineral Springs Foundation to restore, protect, publicize, and document Manitou’s springs. So far, they’ve succeeded in working with private landowners and the city to restore eight of the area’s approximately two dozen springs, and are working toward more. Rhoda left the foundation in 1995 due to health problems, but stays involved.
“I spent all my working years teaching elementary school, so that was child- and parent-focused,” she says. “But this was a whole new world. I learned a whole new set of skills, met wonderful people, and benefited greatly from it. I loved teaching, but I loved this, too. People asked what I wanted to do in retirement, and I said ‘I don’t know!’ So I’m glad this happened.”
Eagle Scout badge, black tie, and choir robe: some of Arthur Benson’s many uniforms
“Being an Eagle Scout is probably worth $50,000 over a lifetime in terms of preference for schools and jobs,” says Arthur Benson, a 71-year-old retired plastics industry manager who now spends between 40 and 50 hours a month volunteering for five organizations in Colorado Springs. One of his favorite roles is as a leader and committee chairman of a local Boy Scout troop.
Arthur Benson presents the Theodore Roosevelt Medal of the Navy League of the United States to a junior ROTC cadet. Photo courtesy Arthur Benson.
“When I was in my 30s, I mentioned being a Scout leader in a job interview and the first question was, ‘Were you an Eagle Scout?’ and I was able to say yes. And I’ve read many college admissions deans say that all things being equal, they’ll choose the Scout,” he says. “It’s because scouting drills integrity into boys—teaches them about trustworthiness and loyalty, and how to live those traits out. It’s the right age to teach them, too, because then at 16 or 17, two kinds of fumes draw them away from scouting: gas fumes and perfume!”
Arthur is also a retired Navy officer with 23 years of service. He’s now active with the Navy League, an international, 50,000-member civilian organization that educates the public and Congress about the value and needs of the country’s sea services—”a mission especially important in a landlocked state,” says Arthur.
As treasurer of the local board and Navy Ball committee, Arthur helps to raise about $20,000 a year to support the League at the annual black-tie-or-uniform Navy Birthday Ball they sponsor for hundreds of active military and the public in Colorado Springs.
In addition, Arthur sings in two choirs and volunteers as treasurer for the small foundation that owns the real estate assets of his church, as well as for a charter school building corporation. “Those commitments don’t take a lot of time now, but I have a feeling they’ll snowball!” he says.
Bob Baker takes on many roles as the roll winds down
“Serving at the soup kitchen is really neat; it’s humbling,” says Bob Baker, 70, of the monthly volunteering he does with his wife in Colorado Springs. “Serving at that level is really valuable.”
Bob Baker of Colorado Springs. Photo courtesy of Bob Baker.
But Bob has served at many levels for a long time, including in his professional life as CEO of Goodwill Industries of Southern Colorado for 17 years. Prior to that, when he was president of a local bank, he also dedicated time to the United Way, first as a campaign solicitor and eventually as chairman of the board of their local chapter.
“The United Way was a very vibrant organization at that time,” Bob says. “They had a ‘give once’ philosophy—you’d give once, to them, and they’d distribute your donation to worthy organizations in the community. It was very effective.”
Since retirement, among a host of other volunteer pursuits, Bob has joined the board of the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration, a Catholic organization that provides health care and other services to those in need.
“The connections I’ve made—as a nonprofit CEO, board member, and volunteer—they’ve been very important,” he says. “I’ve maintained a lot of them. But life is that roll of toilet paper, right? And now, it’s winding down, so I want to make good use of the time I have left. There’s great fulfillment in all types of community involvement. We’ve been fortunate, and giving back is important to us.”
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In Colorado and want to volunteer? Search hundreds of opportunities on Idealist. Or check out Metro Volunteers, a Denver-based organization that promotes volunteerism in the community.
Ron Bell is one of 10 U.S. Navy submarine veterans who volunteer to lead weekly visitor tours on the USS Blueback, a sub docked outside the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland, Oregon. Retired from a career in scrap metal construction, Bell spoke with me about why he loves volunteering.
This post originally appeared on Next Avenue, a PBS website that informs and inspires the 50 + crowd.
Ron Bell below deck in the USS Blueback
I had been following the USS Blueback submarine since it was retired in 1990, because that’s what we submarine vets do. I was in the Navy for four years during two wars, and worked on a few submarines similar to this one, doing everything from maintenance to communications. When I heard the Blueback was coming to Portland, I had to see it and I had to be a part of it.
So in 1995, soon after it docked, I got involved in volunteering there. From giving tours of the sub to performing maintenance — whatever needs to be done, I do it.
I’m also here because submarines are the most beautiful pieces of machinery. Once you get bit by these things, you want to know all there is about them. You can’t quit.
Checking up on the sub
The Navy still owns the Blueback, but they’ve made it non-operational. For good reason, maybe. To be honest, I don’t think they trust us old sub vets not to take it for a spin. Every year or so, they visit to make sure it’s still up to par. Which, of course, it always is, since they’ve got us on deck.
I enjoy everything about what I do down here. I love telling our tours how we lived on a sub back then and sharing old stories. People like hearing them and I like telling ‘em, so it works out nicely.
In the Navy, I was in Hawaii, Australia, the Philippines — during the Vietnam War — and then the coast of Europe, especially Russia, during the Cold War when I was in a nuclear sub. We got hit by Communist missiles a couple times.
You have to go through sub school, which is a rigorous, intensive type of training. Everyone on deck needs to know how to do everything, in case something goes wrong.
The USS Blueback docked outside of the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (Photo credit: Meltedplastic on Flickr)
The joy of volunteering with fellow vets
The point is, sub vets worked hard to get to where they are. We are all very proud of what we’ve done and deeply respect each other. That’s what makes it so rewarding to work together here. Being on a sub in the Navy is something that connects us all at a very deep level.
I’ll tell ya, if you get a bunch of sub vets together for a cup of coffee after our shift, you end up sharing a lot of laughs and old sea stories, which is just the Navy term for lies.
I’ve visited amazing places around the world while on patrol, but now all I want to do is stay in the states and see this beautiful country where my wife and I live. We make time for RV trips every year to do just that.
An opportunity for time traveling
And of course, I travel back in time when I’m on the sub. As soon as I first walked on board the USS Blueback, it was just like “Boom!” I was back. And I loved it.
And I think the rest of the vets here feel the same. Being here brings back so many fond memories; it’s good for the heart.
I have to say my favorite part of volunteering is when young sub sailors come down to look at the old machinery — it’s a piece of history. They respect us more than anyone, since they know they wouldn’t be where they are if it wasn’t for us guys. That’s why doing this matters.
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Want to volunteer in your community? Search over 13,000 volunteer opportunities around the globe listed on Idealist.
Datatel Volunteers Shelving Picture Books at Centreville Regional Library (Photo credit: Fairfax Library Foundation, Creative Commons/Flickr)
During this time of year, many people want to give back. But whether you are looking for a one-time opportunity or are eager to jumpstart a long-term volunteer experience, you should take some time to figure out what kind of volunteering you would like to do.
What kind of volunteering do you enjoy?
This post is republished from our volunteer center.
Consider DIY volunteering (Photo credit: WAstateDNR – Department of Natural Resources, Creative Commons/Flickr)
With over 15,000 volunteer opportunities on our site, we think there is something for everyone who wants to volunteer. However, we understand that sometimes, there’s nothing that quite fits what you’re looking for. Or, perhaps you are already volunteering, and want to take on new responsibilities, but aren’t sure where to start.
If either of these apply to you, you should consider DIY/Entrepreneurial/Independent Volunteering. By honing your skills and researching organizations that would benefit from your help, you can create a rewarding experience. Here are ways to craft a volunteer experience, from our Volunteer Information Center:
Let’s say you have a project in mind. Try answering the following questions to set parameters around the project:
- What do you need in order to be successful? This can be tangible stuff like tools or other supplies, or it can be more intangible like advertising time or online space to get the word out.
- Who do you need in order to be successful? Is this something you’ll take on by yourself or will you be looking for fellow volunteers? How many volunteers might you need to make your idea happen? What specific skills or political/social/community connections would be an asset? How might you partner with existing organizations, staff, and volunteers?
- How long will it take to achieve your goals? What is your timeline like? Do you have benchmarks or goals in place to measure how you’re doing once you get started? How will you measure and evaluate your progress? How will your project or role be sustained should you decide to move on—will you recruit a volunteer to take it over, seek to integrate it into an organization?
- Why this project or role? Be prepared with research and reasons to explain why your project or role is needed, as well as, if applicable, how it doesn’t duplicate any other efforts. For example, if you’re starting a new wildlife census program and one already exists in your area, you’ll need to be able to explain to potential volunteers, funders, or media contacts why you’ve created a new one and how it’s different.
Consider checking out the Volunteer Self-Organizing tool kit by The Resource Center, Corporation for National and Community Service to help you flesh out the details of your project.
After adding a little more structure to your project, you might want to reach out to organizations. Before you do that, remember to do the following:
Have you created a volunteer opportunity from scratch? Tell us about it in the comments!
