The Voorhees Middle School Trailblazers Club started about a year-and-a-half ago with the simple goal of building new hiking trails in Voorhees Township.
In June, the club unveiled its first completed project with a path called the “Viking Trail” behind VMS to connect to a trail in the nearby Stafford Tract open public space land.
Now, that path has taken The Trailblazers beyond the woods behind VMS and all the way to a meeting with the Camden County Board of Chosen Freeholders, where the freeholders commended the club on its work.
At the freeholder’s Sept. 15 meeting, which rotates monthly and was held at the Voorhees Town Center, Freeholder Susan Shin Angulo presented the club with a proclamation thanking the group for giving back to the local community.
“It was a great idea … and they will continue to build trails,” Shin Angulo said as she praised the work the club had already completed.
In return, VMS social studies teacher and club leader David Thompson thanked the freeholders for the award, and he also gave thanks to the Voorhees Township Committee for working with the Trailblazers “hand in hand” by granting permission to work on land the township owns.
According to Thompson, the original idea for the club first sprang from a problem he and his wife faced when they wanted to incorporate more walking and hiking into their lives and found themselves traveling to neighboring towns to find trails.
When Thompson happened to mention the issue offhand to his class one day, he surprisingly found several willing students who wanted to put their minds together to fix the problem.
Throughout the following year, the club held weekly meetings during the fall and spring where members could put their heads together and design, and eventually build, their first trail.
When asked if he ever thought the club would evolve this far, Thompson said he had no idea.
“I thought this was something I might be able to do informally with maybe three or four kids or something like that, and it just snowballed, and that’s a testament to the kids themselves,” Thompson said. “The kids came out because this was something they wanted to do, and they’re continuing to come out.”
Thompson said receiving the award also allowed him to reconnect with a lot of his eighth-grade students from last school year who had since graduated and moved on to Eastern Regional High School.
“They were able to come back for the award, which was really nice because they were a big part of this,” Thompson said. “Most of them were founding members of the club.”
As for future projects, Thompson said he was optimistic the club would keep going. He said the club is looking at creating a trail toward Connolly Park.
“We have more good things in store. We’ll keep building trails, and hopefully people will come out and use them,” Thompson said.
With that in mind, Thompson once again invited the public to stop by when VMS isn’t in session and make use the Viking Trail.
“The trailhead is right behind VMS, right off by the right edge of the baseball field. Tell everybody to come on out and use it,” Thompson said. “It’s there for use, and it’s always cool back there. Even on the hottest day, it’s almost completely shaded so it’s nice.”
