Ribbon Cutting Ceremony Held at Jamson Mill Park

Volunteers from the Henry County Bike Club, Southern Virginia Mountain Bike Association (SVMA) Danville, Franklin County Free Wheelers, and Friends of Philpott donated over 988 volunteer hours on the building of the trail. Pictured above: Linda Drage, Mary Lawson, Dave Wiseman, Harold Ellis, Jim Firth, Hazel Hale and Bobby Thompson.

The army of volunteers created a beautiful trail for mountain bikes and hiking. The work took a year and a half to complete. Linda Drage, President of Friends of Philpott stated “that sometimes the weather was at odds with the volunteers; as well as the contour of the land; where they had to deal with large rocks and steep terrain”. Back in 2007 Jamison Mill was slated to be closed. In time the trail will join other parks on the eastside of Philpott Lake creating approx. 10 miles of trail. Pictured above: Robb Herbst on the trail.

The Ribbon Cutting Ceremony was held in honor of National Public Land Day which is the largest hands-on volunteer effort to improve and enhance the public lands Americans enjoy. In 2008, 120,000 volunteers built trails, removed trash and invasive plants and planted over 1.6 million trees. Pictured above: Dave Wiseman, Mary Lawson, Harold Ellis, Jim Firth, Linda Drage, Hazel Hale, Roy Hale and Bobby Thompson.

Food Lions from Bassett Forks and Stanley Town sponsored the event.

Contributed by: Linda Drage