That dangerous spot where the Cinnamon Bay trail meets Centerline Road is getting a much-needed improvement thanks to the work of this year’s Student Conservation Association crew.
The eight students and two crew leaders spent Thursday installing huge rocks to make steps so hikers don’t come immediately to the road at the end of their trip uphill. Before this change, hikers often sat at the edge of the road to rest, which put them unsafely close to passing vehicles.
“Cars can get up to 60 mph,” Audrey Penn, who is the Friends of V.I. National Park program manager, said as the crew moved another big rock.
The monthlong program is funded to the tune of $35,000 by an anonymous donor through the Friends group, Penn said. The students arrived on St. John June 15.
While the SCA program is national, on St. John it brings together four students from the territory and four from the mainland to create a cross-cultural mix.
“The culture is so unique and we got to be here during the parade and food fest,” crew leader Anna Brown said, referring to the upcoming St. John Festival.
Brown, 23, worked as a crew leader last year on St. John. She lives in Bemidji, Minn., and is studying to be an English teacher.
The students are staying at Cinnamon Bay Campground, enjoying the beach, playing games and reading in their off hours. They take turns cooking meals.
“I cooked pizza once and noodles and lo mein chicken,” said high school senior Sean Roy, 17, of Toledo, Ohio.
Like Roy, most of the youths said they enjoyed helping the environment.
“It’s hard work but it’s worth it,” Emily JnBaptiste, 19, of St. Croix said.
JnBaptiste as well as her twin sister and fellow crew member, Emma JnBaptiste, are both recent graduates of St. Croix Central High School and are heading to the University of the Virgin Islands. Emily JnBaptiste plans to study criminal justice and Emma JnBaptiste, nursing.
The work also gets the students dirty as they move rocks and dig dirt, an aspect of the job that pleased Paulina Spencer, 17, of Raleigh, N.C.
“I like getting dirty,” she said.
Jesus Ayala, 16, will be a senior at St. Croix Central High School with a future in the V.I. National Guard to pay for college expenses. He said he enjoyed the opportunity to be outside.
“It’s very good to be in nature,” he said.
Richard Driscoll, 17, and an Antilles School senior who lives on St. Thomas, rounded out the V.I. group. He’s had nice words to say about his fellow SCA participants.
“The best part is how we all get along and how quick we get the work done,” he said.
He found out about the program from his school counselor, but one student had participated in SCA programs elsewhere. Michael Moran, 16, of Jacksonville, Fla., spent last summer in Idaho working on a crew.
“It was a great time so I decided to come back and do it again,” he said.
Sophie Katz, 16, of Tulsa, Okla., heard about the program from friends.
“I was looking for something to do this summer,” she said.
Unlike the other students, who planned a variety of careers unrelated to their summer employment, she hopes to work in conservation or biology.
The second crew leader, Ryan Fischer, 21, and a recent graduate of Northern Michigan University, took the job because he likes working with kids.
“And for a good cause. I really enjoy doing conservation work,” he said.
