Many Benefits
by Bob Rauseo

   Please imagine these groups of people:

  The first group is made up of people who carelessly or thoughtlessly discard unwanted lumber and other building materials near the Shawsheen River. The boards, fencing, window frames, and beams end up on the banks or in the channel. This material blocks the natural flow of the river and is an eyesore to canoeists, hikers, bird watchers, and other people who use the river corridor.

   In the second group are adolescent boys at a residential program in Lowell, MA. They are expected to do community service, but their behaviors have not been safe enough or consistent enough for them to be allowed to leave the residential program property

   A troop of boy scouts camping at a non-profit campground in Wilmington, MA, makes up group three.

   They have set up their tents and are preparing their evening campfire.

   What connects these three groups? One answer is - wood.

   A fourth group, canoeists who paddle the Shawsheen River, collect the wood in their canoes as they travel up and down the river. The wood is then loaded in a pick-up truck and brought to the residential program.

    Residents and staff at the residential program unload the wood. Using leather gloves, small hand tools, and a garden hose, they clean the wood, remove nails and screws, and cut long boards into shorter pieces. They load the wood back into the truck. The wood is then brought to the campground and piled next to the campfire circle.
    What are the benefits?

    1. The original thoughtless act is undone.

    2. With the obstacles removed, the river follows a more natural course.

    3. With the trash removed, people who visit the river have a more pleasant experience.

    4. The people who remove the discarded lumber experience the satisfaction of accomplishing a worthwhile task. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "The reward for a job well done is to have done it."

    5. The boys at the residential program complete community service expectations without leaving the residential grounds. They also have a sense of accomplishment that comes from participating in a helpful activity

   6. The boy scouts at the campground have a ready source of wood for their campfire.

   7. The dead wood already in the campground is left in the woods to provide habitat for a wide variety of animals and plants.

   The wood that was ugly in the river is beautiful in the campfire. The boys who were stuck on grounds due to unsafe behaviors provide a valuable service to people they will probably never even meet. The people who carelessly disposed of lumber provide firewood for a troop of boy scouts. What's going on here?

   Nothing special.