Last Thursday, members from the Reading Select Board, Trails Committee and Conservation met with the Next Step Ministries group to thank them for their hard work this summer. The group was on a mission trip from Pennsylvania, though members came from all over the USA. Their mission included work to be done improving various trails around Reading. The foreman leading the group was Carsen McDaniel, who traveled from Georgia to Reading. Carsen’s team worked on boardwalk at Bare Meadow at Lenetta Lane and even managed to fill in potholes in the Mattera Cabin driveway and parking area. While in Reading, the group stayed at the First Baptist Church.
We wanted to have an opportunity to say thank you to Next Step ministries for a second year of absolutely amazing work. Without what you did all summer long, that would have taken us three years. I want to thank you but I first want to thank the Select Board because without them, we wouldn’t have had the money to buy the materials to build the things you built. I want to thank Conservation for allowing Chuck to have the time to make sure you got everything you needed all summer. You knew where to go, you could tell him what you needed and you’d have it right away. So he did a great job managing that. But mainly I want to say thank you to Carsen, who I got to know a little bit this summer. He’s an amazing leader, young man, role model.
Kathy Kelly of the Trails Committee
How did Reading end up getting involved with Next Step Ministries in the first place? Conservation Administrator Chuck Tirone went on and explained that during the discussion with Carsen:
Ed Bennett, who works for the Housing Authority, originally brought Next Step to me, and we’ve been using them for two years, but we don’t want to forget about Mike Hannaford and Jeff Cummings. They were bringing the material to us and never forgetting about us and trying to squeeze us in. Maybe getting a little grief from their superiors for that but it was awesome. I’m glad that you guys came out here and you saw one of conservation’s flagship areas.
What was the worse experience the group had while working in Reading? Carsen explained, “I will say there’s one thing that’s been worse here than anywhere. I live in Mississippi most of the year. We have mosquitoes. Nothing like here. They’re horrible. I mean, they’re the most aggressive mosquitoes I’ve ever seen in my life.” And with that, the group enjoyed some popsicles and headed back into their bus, off to their next adventure.
Below is just a sample of the work that Next Step Ministries completed during their couple weeks here in Reading.
