Kirkpatrick Honored For Service

In Martinsville and Henry County, a major project is presently underway: the development of the Smith River Trail System. This series of trails will follow the Smith River 45 miles from the base of Philpott Dam to it’s confluence with the Dan River in Eden, NC. In the past two years, five miles of the system have been completed and development on another two miles of trail will begin later this spring. The construction of these trails takes time, effort, and good volunteers. DRBA is very fortunate to have members that understand the importance of trails and wish to help bring them to fruition. One of those members is Wayne Kirkpatrick.

In the past year, Wayne has participated in every volunteer trail building event held by DRBA on the Smith River Trail System. Being the hard worker that he is, Wayne is usually the first volunteer to arrive at the worksite and the last one to leave. He has a can-do attitude and is always eager to try new things. When the Project Manager says “I have a crazy idea, but it just might work!” Wayne makes it happen- the next thing you know he has built an earthen staircase into the side of a steep hill with just a chainsaw and shovel. On another occasion, Wayne built an amazing six-foot-tall debris fence to deter motorized traffic from entering a trail. In fact, he enjoyed that project so much he built the fence twice- but that’s another story!

The bottom line is that Wayne is a person you can always count on to help at trail workdays and you know that he will do a good job, whether he’s installing signs, cutting trees, or simply picking up litter. That’s why we chose Wayne Kirkpatrick, as the recipient of DRBA’s first ever Golden Shovel Award for Trail Building Excellence. Thank you Wayne!