Volunteers labor in the Valley

PALMER — A patch of woods near the Valley Community for Recycling Solutions rang Tuesday afternoon with the unmistakable sounds of young people working.

Volunteers from as far away as Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin hacked at weeds, chopped at tree roots, spread dirt across a narrow trail, and lined up stones to block it. Within a few days, it would become a wheelchair accessible nature trail. The majority of the volunteers were from Austin, Texas. They were working on a nature trail that would be used by a volunteer at the center, named Austin, who uses a wheelchair.

The trail is part of volunteer efforts by a group know as Lifetree Adventures. The group has partnered with nonprofits as far away as Costa Rica, Haiti, and Peru to perform work as varied as building churches, repairing houses and educating people.

They aren’t picky about the type of ideal work they do, said Tamara Park, the team leader for the Alaska trip.

“We are partnering with nonprofits in the area to be able to serve, do some practical work that’s needed, but we really love the partnership of being able to come and invest in the community, but also see the beauty and meet the incredible people,” she said.

Park and the other Lifetree Volunteers made the connection through Stephanie Vitt, who works at the Big Lake Fire Department.

Besides the nature trail, volunteers were working on residential homes in Caswell Lakes and Wasilla, installing new bleachers at the Big Lake Recreation Center, painting and hanging Sheetrock in a hangar at a nonprofit organization serving Bush villages, painting cabins and building games at Camp Maranatha.

The group had received support from the Faith Bible Fellowship, Valley People Mover, and the Alaska Community Development Corp.

A second camp set for July 25 will bring about 50 campers to the area, and expand the projects to include helping with the Sockeye fire recovery in Willow, and other additional nonprofits, like MY House in Wasilla and Onward and Upward in Palmer.

Alaska is one of the few locations in the United States where the group works, Park said.

“I think one of the great gifts of these kind of projects is taking people out of their element and giving them an opportunity to serve as well as encounter God in new ways,” she said. “Just getting to see the beauty and grandeur of Alaska, and then teaming up with a service project.”

Terry Koch, the center’s marketing coordinator, said she was astonished and a little overcome by the progress made in a few short hours.

“I’ve always had this vision, that it would be like this nature trail and we would have informational, like trunks, like tree trunks, like a little bench,” she said. “Just stuff! Interesting stuff!”

Volunteers mostly said they were moved by faith, though it wasn’t all about ministry and work.

Jackson Shoultz was working up a sweat with an axe, but said the summer weather he toiled in was among the things he was enjoying, compared to the swelter of a Texas summer.

“This is like 65 degrees,” he said. “This is our winter.”

His work was a form of service, Shoultz said.

“It does have a good works component, but I feel like a good way to establish a relationship with Christ is to live like him in the service aspect of it, and just give everything you have, if that helps someone,” he said.

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano