Check out this new video that shows portions of the course for the D&L’s first marathon and half marathon. You’ll even get a glimpse of the epic Heritage Heartbreak Hill.

Volunteers are needed for the inaugural Delaware & Lehigh Heritage Marathon and Half-Marathon runs being held on the D&L Trail in Northampton, Lehigh and Carbon counties on October 23. The event is being organized by the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor with assistance from Rodale Press and Endurance Multisport.

People are needed to set up the start and finish areas in Northampton Borough and Lehigh Gap; register runners and distribute race packets; distribute drinks and fruit before the race, staff nine water stations along the race route; serve as course marshals; distribute food following the race; and clean up the finish area at the end of the race.  There are some pre-race opportunities as well.

Volunteer responsibilities begin as early as 6 a.m. at the start area and some jobs end around 3 p.m. at the finish line.  Post-race take down is expected to conclude no later than 5 p.m. The races begin at 9 a.m.  Organizers are looking for individuals, clubs, and school and Scout groups to volunteer. Students and Scouts can receive community service hours by helping. All volunteers receive a T-shirt.

Interested persons can volunteer online at http://www.delawareandlehigh.org/marathon or contact Loretta Susen at loretta@delawareandlehigh.org or 610-923-3548, ex 221.

Proceeds from this event will sustain the D&L Trail.  The Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor fosters stewardship of historical, cultural and natural resources along the early canal and railroad systems that carried anthracite coal from mine to market in eastern Pennsylvania

Ilse Stoll and Cindy Kerschner have never met, yet they have many things in common. Both are wild about native plants and can rattle off their Latin names quicker than Cicero could malign a political foe. Both are community-minded and enjoy getting involved with good causes. Each loves outdoor work and is not afraid to get dirty.

Best of all, especially from the D&L’s perspective, both are Trail Tenders who have assumed the responsibility of transforming trailside jungles of invasive plants into naturalized gardens of Eden for public enjoyment.

Ilse oversees work at the Trail Tenders’ two-acre Sand Island Native Plant Preserve near her residence in Bethlehem. Cindy, a Lehigh County resident, is beautifying the D&L Trail’s Cementon Trailhead, which offered little in the way of eye-popping aesthetics before she got involved.

Ilse Stoll (right) and a friend head to the SINPP with a load of ferns.

The enthusiasm of the two volunteer “Plant Ladies” has been contagious. Ilse has recruited a dedicated following and conducts weekly weeding parties that attract others who enjoy gardening on a grand scale. Cindy’s well-designed and organized efforts have caught the attention of neighbors, who have offered physical help, tool storage, and water for thirsty plants and workers.

“I get a lot of ‘Looks nice, looks great’ comments when I’m working there,” says Cindy, a member of the Penn State University Master Gardener program. “The neighborhood, for the most part, is excited about the trail.”

Ilse also receives compliments at Sand Island, and sometimes recruits the well-wishers on the spot. “I had a man tell me what a nice job we were doing, so I said we need some help today,” Ilse recalls of a chance meeting with a trail user. “I put him to work and he stayed an hour. Why not?”

Cindy Kerschner and Dean Hower

The Plant Ladies and their helpers fill a void at Trail Tenders projects where invasive vegetation is removed. A lot of Trail Tenders enjoy removing invasive trees and shrubs and vines, but they’d rather not be bothered with the delicate, patient job of replacing the aliens with natives and the summer-long job of weeding. For Ilse and Cindy, it’s second nature.

“You need to love what you’re doing so it doesn’t become a chore,” Cindy says. “And it’s not like work when you do the job with a great bunch of people.”

“People love what we do,” Ilse adds. “They stop and talk as they smell the new native flowers. “They thank us all the time as we are on our hands and knees weeding.”

Ilse has hosted the Mayor of Bethlehem, John Callahan, at the Sand Island site, and promoted the preserve as a candidate for the National Wildlife Federation’s Backyard Habitat program. Cindy’s tenure as the D&L’s Lehigh County Plant Lady has only begun this year, but she already has plans to expand to other portions of the D&L Trail where the beauty of native wildflowers is needed.

“I use the trails and I believe in paying forward so others can enjoy the trails in the future,” she points out. “It is nice to see that the D&L is very organized and committed to their cause. The volunteers go the extra mile to protect and preserve the Corridor.”

Especially two like-minded women who have never met. If you’d care to join them, drop a line to Ilse at zinnes@verizon.net or Cindy at cindykerschner@gmail.com.

When GIS technology talks, Ray Wolf listens. He listens in Florida or New York or California, or anywhere else that Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping technology is being discussed at national or regional workshops.

And then he brings all his new-found knowledge to a cubicle on the second floor of the Emrick Technology Center in Hugh Moore Park, Easton, where Ray serves as a multiple-day-a-week volunteer for the D&L. Ray helps Silas Chamberlin display imagery of the D&L Trail, conduct mapping of properties along the trail, perform GIS measurements of distances between D&L trailheads, and other tasks that keep the D&L at the top of the mapping technology curve.

Ray Wolf shows a GIS-based trail map to Silas Chamberlin.

What keeps Ray motivated to provide his skills at no cost? For starters, Starbucks coffee. It is unusual to see him enter the office without his morning container of caffeine. Ray’s background? He was employed professionally as a GIS specialist for Lockheed Martin. Why did he volunteer? Ray explains it very clearly.

“I was seeking to volunteer for a non-profit organization that might benefit from my professional Geographic Information Systems (GIS) skills for electronically mapping trails, conservation initiatives, historical locations and the environment, “ he says. “The D&L leadership, which supports those areas of interest through their activities, encouraged my participation in their well-developed GIS capability.”

And the rest, as they say, is history. Ray arrives much the same time staff does and fits right in with the D&L’s casual atmosphere. He likes to run and bicycle and is an aficionado of historic maps (we wonder where that fascination comes from?). Ray and Silas discuss topics that only they comprehend and the rest of the staff marvels at how fortunate the D&L is to have such a unique volunteer in their midst.

Ray, who began his D&L volunteer stint in January, is looking forward to more techno challenges. “I’m prepared to perform mapping of 2010 census data relevant to the D&L and am currently preparing to initiate a map inventory of D&L signs along the more than 160 miles of the Corridor and its trailheads, to support planning, acquisition, and maintenance of those directional aids and displays.”

There was a guy named Christopher Columbus who could have used Ray Wolf. Sorry, Chris, we have him now, and we’re not giving him up.