By Suzanne “Cricket” Binelli
When I was around 10 years old my class went to Natures Classroom. This is a residential environmental education program that still runs today, which I brought many children to when I drove a school bus. I remember the songs, activities, meals with the ORT Report (ooh, ahh, the ORT Report, I said a-ooh, ahh, ORT Report) and not wanting to leave. But what does this have to do with the APT?
The photo that accompanies my thoughts this month is the actual paper I made at Natures Classroom back in ‘78. It was an activity about taking aged newspapers and turning them into something new and useful instead of just throwing them away. I never wrote anything on it because I was ‘saving’ it for something really special. Today I finally made a mark on my recycled paper and set my intentions.
The APT will be a connection for all who want to spend time with nature. A place for kids to safely walk to school, a path to get to a neighboring towns farmers market. Maybe it will have a section with a community garden that helps feed those in need. I’d like to see it also be part of an environmental educational program that draws the next generations away from electronics and worries of the world to find peace among flora and fauna. The APT will be more than a footpath for hikers, though we look forward to millions of them, both clockwise and counterclockwise or will it be clockwise counterclockwise? Deosil or Widdershins?
The magnitude of this project could seem daunting, but that’s ok. Just because something is difficult does not make it impossible and the possibilities for what we are building are boundless.
See you on the trail – Suzanne
Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.
The Talmud
