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Knoxville News Sentinel - Sam Venable
Since retiring from her teaching career, Mary Ann has been sampling volunteer opportunities. One of her most recent was a stint with Trails Forever.

More than $463,000 raised for trail improvement fund at Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Six different groups of students, from University of Virginia, Truman University, New York University, University of Colorado, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Warren Wilson College, spent their spring break doing trail work in Great Smoky Mountains National Park as part of the Trails Forever program during the month of March 2010.

My husband, Lenny, and I first visited Great Smoky Mountains National Park back in 1974. We were on a driving vacation from New Jersey and thought we could “do” both Shenandoah National Park and the Smokies in a mere two weeks.

While college spring break often evokes images of young people in sun-drenched locales such as Cancun or Acapulco, each year students from colleges and universities across the nation spend their spring breaks doing volunteer service projects.