It’s a beautiful fall morning in Chapel Hill, with people gathering along the Booker Creek Trail for the first volunteer trail day of the fall. Dozens of middle schoolers, high schoolers and adults are standing around Adam Smith of the Parks and Recreation Department as he demonstrates the proper ways to plant young trees.
Before long, the trail is bustling with people at work: clearing invasive or dead plants, digging holes for the new trees, making cages to protect them from deer, and more.
Adam Smith with the Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation Department shares instructions with volunteers on October 17, 2022, as the group gathers to plant trees along Booker Creek Trail.
In the middle of the action are Neal and Jeanette Bench. Neal is taking questions from the young volunteers about where to find equipment or which trees to grab. Jeanette, meanwhile, is helping coordinate further down the trail and is initialing volunteer hour sheets or attendance slips from participants.
“We have 70 trees to plant today,” describes Neal. “If we get that all planted, that’d be great.”
A trio of volunteers put a tree in the ground along Booker Creek Trail in Chapel Hill.
The pair of Chapel Hill residents are largely to credit for how work like this along Booker Creek Trail began. The pair have lived in the town for decades nearby to the town-owned greenway and have served on a variety of parks commissions over the years. After having served as long of terms as allowed, they work with the nonprofit Friends of Chapel Hill Parks, Recreation & Greenways.
While recommending visions and details in that way, the Benches also started taking some care of Booker Creek Trail into their own hands around 2018. What started as a monthly way for local children to be active outdoors and maintain a trail blossomed into a sustained effort that’s created a significant community. Not only do invasive species of plants get cleared out en masse to open views to the forest, but it’s lead to additions of trees, the uncovering of rock formations and beautification projects involving nearby OWASA pipes.
Alongside partnering with local Audubon Society members, Jeanette Bench says the volunteer trail days attract neighbors and trail users who are interested in helping. Perhaps the biggest component is working with the Y Youth Leadership, Chinese American Association, and church groups who have all pitched in over the years.
“Four years later, we still have 80 kids coming,” she says with a laugh. “And of course, I get to see it every day because I walk by [the work along the trail], which makes it very rewarding. But persistence is what it takes.”
Neal and Jeanette Bench pose along the Booker Creek Trail during one of their Volunteer Trail Days.
“There’s so many benefits to this,” Neal adds. “At the end of each of these, guaranteed, many of these kids will say ‘When’s the next one? Can we do this next week?’”
In total, more than 1,000 volunteer hours have been spent along Booker Creek Trail due to the Benches’ efforts, with a noticeable change in the environment for those traveling along the path. Because of that work, members of the Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation Department nominated the Benches for a special statewide honor.
This week, the North Carolina Recreation and Park Association will give the 2022 “Rip” Jackson award to the Chapel Hill duo, in honor of their years of service on advisory boards, but also their efforts to enhance parks and community recreation.
Neal says he and Jeanette learned the news after getting called to coffee by Parks and Recreation Director Phillip Fleischmann and Park Planning Manager Kevin Robinson.
“When they said it to us, of course we said thank you,” he says. “And then we thought about it for a minute and went, ‘That was really cool of you guys to think of us. And to think the ideas we have, the work we’re doing, the causes we support apparently are good for yourselves and good for the town is really cool.’”
It’s not surprising that Neal is quick to credit the team of people who have helped do the landscaping and maintenance of the trail over the years. Jeanette says the same about the town’s Parks and Recreation staff, who have been receptive and active in aiding their efforts.
“It’s great to have a really good relationship with staff – they’ve been phenomenal,” she says, “so of course it feels good. We’re very happy to have been nominated. And then, you know, to receive it in the competition of statewide, it’s a very nice feeling.”
As the clock passes noon, many of the trees that started off in pots are set into the ground with fresh mulch and are watered. More tree planting efforts are set elsewhere in the town as Arbor Day is recognized in November.
And shortly after that, on another Saturday morning, you’ll likely find the Benches and many other Chapel Hill residents hard at work along the Booker Creek Trail.
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