2005 NERO - Dick Blake

Dick Blake of the AMC-Connecticut Chapter and Don Whitney of the Green Mountain Club shared honors as the 2005 Volunteers of the Year for New England. Dick has done an outstanding job of coordinating A.T. corridor-monitoring efforts in Connecticut since that program's inception in the 1980s; and also led the effort to design, plan, and construct the first designated and fully accessible A.T. segment along the Housatonic River in Falls Village. Don is a stalwart volunteer of the GMC's Ottauquechee Section and, like Dick, has been coordinating corridor-monitoring efforts since the program began. Don is also a master privy builder who has designed and built pit, composting, and moldering privies.