Catoctin Area Civitan Club Presents Check

With help from the Civitan Club of Frederick and the Foundation for Children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, the Catoctin Area Civitan Club presented the Catoctin Forest Alliance SUCCESS program a check for $9,500 to help build an inclusive trail outside of the Thurmont Regional Library.

The Thurmont Library Nature Trail Project is a collaboration between the Catoctin Forest Alliance, the Catoctin Area Civitan Club, the Civitan Club of Frederick, the Town of Thurmont, the Thurmont Regional Library, Thurmont Green Team, the Frederick County Public School Program called SUCCESS, and volunteers from the community.

The SUCCESS Youth Program is one of the programs of Catoctin Forest Alliance (CFA) that, for the past six years, has been working on projects for the Cunningham Falls State Park and Gambrill State Park, Catoctin Furnace Historical Site and the National Park, Catoctin Mountain Park. These youth are between the ages of 18-21 with a disability who are from the SUCCESS School, part of the Frederick County School System.

When asked by the library to establish an ADA trail, it fell into part of the overall objectives of the SUCCESS program. This trail is a win-win, where youth with disabilities are working on the trail for people with and without disabilities.

The part that ties all of this together is the help of the Catoctin Area Civitan Club. Six years ago, CFA received a grant from them through the Foundation for Children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Chesapeake District – Civitan International, Inc. to start the SUCCESS program. This program is operated every day that the youth are in school for the entire school year, from 9:00-11:00 a.m. It is run by volunteers, and receives assistance from the state and federal parks.

When it was decided that the trail at the library was workable, Jim Robbins from the Catoctin Forest Alliance came to Mary Dal-Favero of the Catoctin Area Civitan Club for assistance. She asked the Civitan Club of Frederick to join as they work closely with the SUCCESS School in Frederick. This support of the two clubs, who agreed to co-sponsor the grant for the trail, was the first step, along with the collaboration of the other groups mentioned above, to make this trail part of the trail system for the Town of Thurmont. It will tie together the ADA Trolley Trail with the Library Trail and future trails and picnic areas in the area behind the library.

If you have any questions about Civitan, please feel free to contact Mary Dal-Favero at 240-620-8630. If you would like to learn more about the Catoctin Forest Alliance SUCCESS program of the Trail system, please contact Jim Robbins at 301-693-9703.