For one West Liberty University professor, summer vacation was backbreaking, exhausting – and truly memorable. Christian H. Lee, associate professor of communications, spent four weeks with his son Mason and other Boy Scouts building a trail in a national recreational area in southern West Virginia.
Lee is an Eagle Scout and currently is an assistant scoutmaster for Wheeling’s Troop 6, meeting at Vance Memorial Presbyterian Church. He joined nine other local members of the Order of the Arrow, a select Boy Scouts service branch, and more than 1,400 other “Arrowmen” from throughout the world to build over 12 miles of trails at the New River Gorge National Recreation Area in Fayette County. The “service adventure” project was called Summit Corps – The New River Experience.
The scouts’ volunteer labor saved the taxpayers over $1.6 million and accomplished in four weeks what National Park Service officials expected would take 10 years to accomplish. “In four weeks, we put in around 78,544 man-hours,” Lee said.
“It was backbreaking labor,” he added. “Using rakes, shovels and picks we moved rocks and dirt to cut out bike trails. When we needed gravel, we broke up rocks with sledge hammers.
“I’ve never worked so hard in my life,” he said, “but I’d do it again. It was a great experience.”
Lee explained that the scouts and their adult leaders were divided into work crews of 10, comprised of two college-age adults, three older adults and five scouts in their teens. “We didn’t work with the people we came with,” he explained. “We were put into groups with people of different ages and, when we weren’t working, had the opportunity to talk about philosophy and service, and to share life lessons with the kids.
“It not only was a work experience for us, but a growth experience for the youth, teaching them how to be leaders in society.”
The scouts also served the local Fayette County community while they were there. The Order of the Arrow donated over 4,000 non-perishable meals to two local organizations, and 5,600 pounds of food to a homeless shelter in Beckley, W.Va. Lee said his group, comprised of scouts and adults from the Upper Ohio Valley, also raised money to purchase bicycles for every child in a small West Virginia town.
“People in the nearby towns would come out and thank us for our work on the trail,” Lee said. “Their response was so positive.”
He added that the Boy Scouts will have a continuing presence in the New River Gorge National River, as the Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve, currently under construction near Beckley and adjacent to the national park, will be the permanent home of the annual jamboree. Over 50,000 members of the Boy Scouts of America are expected to attend the first West Virginia-hosted jamboree in 2013.
Lee has been a member of the College of Arts and Communication faculty at WLU for over 20 years.