2024 Volunteers of the Year
November 21, 2024
The North Country Trail Association (NCTA) defines Honor Award Recipients as “Chapter or Affiliate volunteers who demonstrate loyalty, commitment, and hard work annually to the local organization’s chosen activities.” The SHTA calls these folks our Volunteers of the Year! Since we are able to name one person for every 100 miles of trail, we have the opportunity to honor three stellar volunteers each year. Here are this year’s honorees.
Shelly Thompson’s history of caring for the SHT speaks for itself when hiking through her flawlessly maintained adopted sections of Trail. A Duluth area volunteer for more than a decade, she helps with both maintenance projects and weed whipping. But this year, Shelly’s work on the trail more than doubled. She stepped up into a volunteer crew leader position and started leading those weed whipping crews. Some crew members were long-time friends, and some were brand new volunteers, who raved about their experience. And who wouldn’t love to be on her crew – just look at that smile! Thank you, Shelly, for all you do for the SHT.
Tom Harris is a dedicated Volunteer Crew Leader (VCL) and sawyer, spending many, many days on trail each year. But he shows up in so many other ways! He regularly transports gear to camps. He helps set up and clean up at mutli-day trips and single-day trainings, where many of you will have seen him. But here’s something most of you wouldn’t know. Tom asked a couple of years ago if there was any engraving he could do for us with his laser engraver. He’s the person behind the personalized loppers and shovels that adopters get, as well as a few other items with the SHTA logo on them like the wedges for sawyers. Thank you, Tom, for all you do for the SHT.
Josh Stangle’s dedication to the SHT is obvious with all of the care he puts into adopting a section and being active in Duluth area trail maintenance. Josh has led weed whipping in the past, but this year, he stepped up to even more responsibility in that arena. In his new role as Volunteer Crew Leader, he not only led weed whipping but assisted at the Cascade River project. And weed whipping wasn’t enough! He even took home all the weed whip line to cut into lengths for the whips. This winter, he’s working on making sure next year’s weed whipping schedule will be as smooth as silk. Thank you, Josh, for all you do for the SHT.