On a humid Thursday morning in July, the Community Work Program (CWP) crew at the Quehanna Boot Camp headed out to the Keystone Elk Country Alliance Visitor Center in Benezette, Pa. There, they would lend a helping hand at the center's working farm (Elk Mountain Homestead).
Turning off the main road heading toward the visitor center, the first thing you see is a wooden wall with a welcome message.
Immediately behind the wall is a large statue of an elk and The Gurney Volunteer House.
On previous visits, the CWP crew has assisted with staining the house and helped create the stone base for the statue.
As you turn onto the road leading to the visitor center, you notice a wrought iron gate on the left. This gate will lead you to the homestead where the crew is working today.
The crew begins the day by moving and positioning a conveyor belt to load hay bales in the barn loft. Two men unload the hay bales from a trailer, one (with assistance from Maintenance Foreman Hummel and Chad Woodward, the farm manager) puts them on the conveyor, and three men catch the bales in the loft and stack them.
Once this task was completed, it was time to work in the stable. The Elk Mountain Homestead has two beautiful Belgian horses, Donny and Jake. Chad joked that the horses are college graduates and went on to explain that Syracuse University has an equestrian program where they train horses. Once the students in the program graduate, the horses cannot be recycled back into the program, so they are sold. Donny and Jake are used to pull wagons for tours and weddings. They are known to "pose" for photos.
The CWP crew breaks off to complete tasks in and around the stable. A couple shovel sawdust into a wheelbarrow and dump it in a storage area to be used to line the stalls. Several other crew members clean and polish the bridles and harnesses. Yet another crew member cleans out the horse stalls and puts down fresh sawdust.
By the end of the day, everyone is tired but full of pride at having accomplished so much in the course of one day.
Chad expressed his thanks for the crew coming to assist. He said that if the crew didn't come up to help, he is responsible for completing all these tasks on his own.
On a side note, the crew cleans up the old Benezette Cemetery. An individual recently sent a letter to the facility expressing his gratitude for the hard work our CWP crew did to improve the cemetery.