Chickasaw State Park hosts Tennessee Serves event

Tennessee Serves is an initiative started by First Lady Maria Lee that encourages Tennesseans to step up and serve in their communities.

This month's challenge encourages people to go lend a hand at their local state park and that is exactly what volunteers were doing all day long at Chickasaw State Park.

“Just to give us a helping hand in making the parks beautiful for everybody,” says park ranger Scott Easley.

About 15 volunteers spent the day on Lake Lajoie trail and by the end it was unrecognizable.

The path starts right here and they are cleaning and clearing up the entire mile and a half just as a way to give back to the community.

“Fallen trees over the trails were using chainsaws to cut the trees off with, were using blowers and weed eaters to clean vegetation to clear the trails clean leaves off the trails, make them clear so people know where the trails are at. at these bridges are going over wet areas so people don’t have to walk through mud basically to make them more passable for people,” says Easley.

Around 450,000 people visit Chickasaw every year and park rangers say without the volunteers or events like these keeping the park looking good wouldn’t be possible.

Volunteers now invite the community to come enjoy the fresh path.

“A lot of work and effort has been put into it and they should enjoy it,” says Jonathan Crawford.

Park rangers say volunteers aren’t just welcome during events but year round to help around the park.