Congratulations to Brian Rimm on his winning design for this year’s Canal Community Days Logo Contest! We received a record number of design entries from more than 20 different artists, and are grateful to everyone in our Canal Community who took the time to enter. We hope to see you at our volunteer events this spring wearing this great design!
Great Falls Canal Community Days by Francis Grant-Suttie
Important Information
Sign up below and important event information will be emailed to you prior to the event. Volunteer Service Agreement (VSA) and Media Release forms are required for every individual participating in Canal Community Days. Please note that these forms have been updated for 2021. Download them here (https://www.canaltrust.org/programs/community-days-registration-forms/) and bring the signed form with you the day of the event. Digital signatures cannot be accepted.
In addition to the regular expectations for safety and well-being for all volunteers, we have included a list of COVID-related precautions and expectations for all staff and volunteers:
* Please note: Due to the increased risk of spreading infection, we will not be providing any water or other drinks during Canal Community Days 2021. Please be sure to bring enough liquids for everyone in your group, at least one quart per person.
Questions: [email protected]
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This location is full. Please sign up for one of our other locations.
Important Information
Sign up below and important event information will be emailed to you prior to the event. Volunteer Service Agreement (VSA) and Media Release forms are required for every individual participating in Canal Community Days. Please note that these forms have been updated for 2021. Download them here (https://www.canaltrust.org/programs/community-days-registration-forms/) and bring the signed form with you the day of the event. Digital signatures cannot be accepted.
In addition to the regular expectations for safety and well-being for all volunteers, we have included a list of COVID-related precautions and expectations for all staff and volunteers:
* Please note: Due to the increased risk of spreading infection, we will not be providing any water or other drinks during Canal Community Days 2021. Please be sure to bring enough liquids for everyone in your group, at least one quart per person.
Questions: [email protected]
—-
This location is full. Please sign up for one of our other locations.
Important Information
Sign up below and important event information will be emailed to you prior to the event. Volunteer Service Agreement (VSA) and Media Release forms are required for every individual participating in Canal Community Days. Please note that these forms have been updated for 2021. Download them here (https://www.canaltrust.org/programs/community-days-registration-forms/) and bring the signed form with you the day of the event. Digital signatures cannot be accepted.
In addition to the regular expectations for safety and well-being for all volunteers, we have included a list of COVID-related precautions and expectations for all staff and volunteers:
* Please note: Due to the increased risk of spreading infection, we will not be providing any water or other drinks during Canal Community Days 2021. Please be sure to bring enough liquids for everyone in your group, at least one quart per person.
Questions: [email protected]
Important Information
Sign up below and important event information will be emailed to you prior to the event. Volunteer Service Agreement (VSA) and Media Release forms are required for every individual participating in Canal Community Days. Please note that these forms have been updated for 2021. Download them here (https://www.canaltrust.org/programs/community-days-registration-forms/) and bring the signed form with you the day of the event. Digital signatures cannot be accepted.
In addition to the regular expectations for safety and well-being for all volunteers, we have included a list of COVID-related precautions and expectations for all staff and volunteers:
* Please note: Due to the increased risk of spreading infection, we will not be providing any water or other drinks during Canal Community Days 2021. Please be sure to bring enough liquids for everyone in your group, at least one quart per person.
Questions: [email protected]
The C&O Canal Trust’s Canal Pride Days events bring hundreds of volunteers to the Park to perform maintenance and preservation tasks aimed at readying the Park for the busy season.
Last year, Canal Pride Days kicked off on April 27 at Paw Paw, where over 30 volunteers came out to work on several projects, including adding stone dust to the Paw Paw Tunnel, beautifying 11 campsites, and filling in potholes.
The following week, on May 4, over 80 volunteers converged on Great Falls. Volunteers worked on repainting the mule shed, painting picnic tables, cleaning the fee booth area, and spreading over 40 cubic yards of mulch. Volunteers from the Friends of the Historic Great Falls Tavern worked on cleaning the tavern and the Charles F. Mercer canal boat.
The final event was held on May 18 at Cushwa Basin in Williamsport with 56 volunteers picking up trash, cleaning exhibits in the trolley barn, and planting native plants in front of Lockhouse 44.
Canal Pride 2019 at Great Falls by Simon Barber
This year, our 13th annual Canal Pride Days events have been postponed due to COVID-19. When stay-at-home restrictions lift, we will be ready to hit the ground running with our Canal Pride activities, working in small teams to beautify the Park and return it to its pre-COVID levels of maintenance.
However, there are several ways you can safely show your Canal Pride by caring for the environment in your own neighborhood. Take a walk outside if you are able to and pick up trash along the way. If you feel comfortable doing so, you can also pick up any pet waste that you see to prevent it from ending up in waterways.
Another way to show your pride is in your own backyard! Cultivate native plants in your garden and help them thrive by removing any invasive plant species. Native plants provide forage for pollinators like butterflies and honeybees and support greater biodiversity than invasives. For resources on native and invasive plants, visit the Maryland Native Plant Society and the Maryland Invasive Species Council.
Drawn by Sweet Nectar by MJ Clingan
Additionally, the Park’s volunteer office has put together some resources for staying engaged:
City Nature Challenge – creating an inventory of the flora and fauna in your own communities through iNaturalist. For more information, please visit: https://citynaturechallenge.org/
Zooniverse – virtual citizen science projects for almost any interest. https://www.zooniverse.org/
Smithsonian citizen science projects: https://www.si.edu/volunteer/citizenscience
Maryland Department of Natural Resources projects: https://dnr.maryland.gov/Pages/Community_Science_Resources.aspx
Chesapeake Monitoring Cooperative – supports local organizations in water quality monitoring efforts and provides opportunities for people and organizations to get involved. For more information and a list of partnering organizations offering citizen science projects, please read on here.
Stay engaged with the C&O Canal National Historical Park and the C&O Canal Trust through social media! Follow the Park on Facebook and Instagram, and follow the Trust on Facebook and Instagram for COVID-19 updates, information about the Park, and cool photos. Finally, you can also show your Canal Pride by supporting the Canal Towns! Read about three ways you can do this here.
We look forward to welcoming all of our Canal Pride volunteers back to the park soon, but until then, stay safe and healthy!
We may still be in the depths of winter, but planning is already underway for our Canal Pride Days volunteer events in the spring. Sponsoring Canal Pride is a great way for your business or family to contribute to preservation and beautification projects in the Park. Our sponsors provide the money that make Canal Pride possible. In 2019, our volunteers completed over 7,000 hours of service in the Park, valued at $204,131. Read More
The C&O Canal Trust is conducting a t-shirt artwork contest to commemorate the 13th anniversary of our Canal Pride events. Amateur artists are invited to create and submit artwork that celebrates the 13th anniversary of this volunteer-driven event. The winning design will be printed on our Canal Pride t-shirts and worn by hundreds of volunteers as they work in the C&O Canal National Historical Park during the spring and summer months. Read More
Each year, the C&O Canal Trust welcomes spring with our annual Canal Pride Days. These public events draw hundreds of volunteers from the community and allow Canal lovers to help ready the Park for the busy season by tackling a variety of preservation and maintenance projects. Read More
2019 is going to be a very busy year for our Canal Pride program as the Trust works with volunteers from our canal communities to help the Park recover from the floods of 2018 and the effects of the government shutdown. Beginning in March, the Trust will recruit over 1,000 Canal Pride volunteers to undertake projects throughout the year along the 184.5-mile length of the canal: campground and picnic area improvements, towpath and trail repairs, building maintenance and historic preservation, invasive plant and trash removal, native landscaping, and more.
We are looking for volunteers to help us in the Park during our 10th annual Canal Pride events, the largest volunteer events in the C&O Canal National Historical Park each year! We hope you will make plans to join us to help spruce up the Park for the upcoming season. Read More
On December 1, sixteen volunteers from World Bank participated in a Canal Pride event where they worked on beautification and preservation projects at Great Falls. A small group of volunteers joined Billy Goat Trail Steward Bob King to hike along Billy Goat Trail A, where they removed a lot of left behind trash as well as helped restore some off-trail areas. Read More
The C&O Canal Trust thanks the 24 volunteers from Clark Construction who helped to remove overgrown vegetation from a historic wall along the towpath between Locks 33 and 34 this past Saturday, November 19! Read More
On Saturday, April 18, the C&O Canal Trust, in partnership with the C&O Canal National Historical Park, will kick off its 8th annual C&O Canal Pride Days, the single largest volunteer event to take place in the Park. Volunteers from around the community will spend the morning working on projects to restore and revitalize the C&O Canal National Historical Park at Great Falls from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Read More
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