97th TRS Students Forge New Legacies

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  • By A1C Jackson Haddon
ALTUS AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --   Students with the 97th Training Squadron volunteered their time and efforts by clearing the hiking trails at Quartz Mountain Nature Park on March 11, 2017.

The 97th TRS started this volunteer opportunity with the idea of helping the community by maintaining hiking trails and possibly starting a new tradition.

“We’re just trying to do our part to support relationships between the base and the community,” said U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Sean Finnegan, 97th TRS military training leader. “I’ve never been to a base where there’s been more community involvement. We’re trying to bolster that partnership, even if it’s something as simple as maintaining hiking trails.”

The volunteer opportunity was proposed by U.S. Air Force Maj. Mary Stanton, 97th TRS flight commander. The 97th TRS had done some volunteering in the past, as well as going hiking around the local area. Stanton thought that this would be a good opportunity to get the Airmen out of their dorms and interacting with their leadership and the community.

“If you're not training, you're kind of just stuck here in the dorms,” said U.S. Air Force Airman First Class Olivia Grant, 97th TRS student. “I really enjoyed going out and cleaning the trail because I like that it wasn’t for us, it was more for the community and it was a good experience.”

Some of the trails on Quartz Mountain had not been traversed for several years before this clearing, allowing weeds, moss, leaves and tree branches to cover them up and make them difficult to navigate.

“Four years ago, they had a large fire that burnt most of the valley and ever since then they really haven’t had much budget for cleaning up the trails,” said Stanton “They were really excited to find out that we were able to come out and do this.”

The 97th TRS plans to continue their work on the trail and hopes to finish by the end of March 2017.

“We got about a quarter of a mile done,” said Grant. “I would like to thank the Altus community for giving us these opportunities and being so open and supportive to us.”

The 97th TRS plans to make this a tradition, helping both the students training here and the community as a whole.