"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood...."

Safe Routes to School addressed the concerns of parents and community members by choosing to rehabilitate one of the trails through the woods between the soccer fields and the back of Takoma Park Middle School.  There were two wooded paths, overgrown and eroded at parts and littered with evidence of drug and alcohol use.  Naturally, parents worried about students using the paths as a short cut to school.  Safe Routes to School, The City of Takoma Park Public Works Department, and the Takoma Park Middle School worked together to make one safe trail for student and community use.

Thanks to Matt Madeira with Branches Tree Experts, dead and low lying limbs and brush were cleared from one path and used to block off and shut down the other more eroded path.  Limb segments and chipped mulch were left to construct the trail.

Beginning one glorious Saturday in March, students from Takoma Park Middle School hauled and spread countless wheelbarrows full of mulch onto the trail.  A supply of garden tools from the Public Works Department made the work go much faster. Donuts and cookies provided by SRTS kept the kids going.  They put down six inches of mulch, pulled weeds and picked up litter. School staff, including Artie Brown, Asst. Principal and Alain Perron, Maintenance Supervisor did their share along side the students. The trail started to take shape.

A community service themed day lent many six graders to the task in early June.  Groups of students earned Student Service Learning hours as they rotated though several projects during the day, including our trail.  The work carried on into the summer when campers from a program at Silver Spring International School earned SSL hours and learned skills from the Takoma Park gardening staff.  Working together we got the job done.

And that has made all the difference.