|
South Cumberland Wish List
Our Letter to Santa for Christmas 2007
State budgets for things like Parks are notoriously limited
and Tennessee is no different than most other states.
We always have more things the Park needs at the end of the
money and the budget.
The Friends of South Cumberland have raised and spent
hundreds of thousands of dollars to fill in the gaps.
Our work is never ending just as the needs of the Park and
the expectations of a growing number of Park visitors
continue to increase.
So, we wrote this letter to Santa on November 26, 2007.
Santa only comes once a year, but you have the opportunity
to be Santa any time you wish. Join the Friends, help
support the Park.
Dear
Santa (copy to all Friends members and South Cumberland
lovers),
Greetings from Tennessee.
First
of all, we have been a REALLY good Park this year.
South Cumberland and all of our brother and sister parks in
Tennessee won the best state park system award! Can't
get any better than that?
Despite
our success there are many things that we need that are not
in the TDEC budget this year (our mommy and daddy).
Our
Friends group asked all the Rangers to put together their
wish list for the things they need so that we could write
you this letter. We are not sure how some of these
things will fit in your sleigh, but you ARE Santa Claus and
we know that if we ask, all things are possible.
Here is
our list for you, and it is a pretty long list:
1.
Video surveillance cameras to combat vehicle burglaries -
unfortunately we have a few bad people who break into cars.
We have such a large park and only a few Rangers. If
we had these cameras we could see who the bad people are and
you could put coal and switches in their stockings.
This would help you, too?
2. A
gun safe for the Park Visitor Center to secure ranger
shotgun & ammo - we keep them locked up now, but if we had a
REAL gun safe this would make things ..... well .....
safer! We have real guns, not the toy guns you usually
bring.
Update December 13,
2007: One of Santa's helpers made a very good deal on a
brand new suitable gun safe. Thanks to Tractor Supply
in Winchester for selling one right at cost. Ranger
Bill Knapp picked it up on the 12th and we are good to go,
and safer!
3. Three GPS units to use in our Hemlock Woolly Adelgid
study and other uses - you may have heard that these bad
bugs are coming to kill our hemlock trees and we have some
of the biggest and tallest hemlock trees anywhere, even
bigger than the White House Christmas tree. We are
trying to save as many of these giants as we can. It
is not going to be easy. The GPS units would be a
great help to the Rangers who are working with the Forestry
Division and the University of the South with satellite
mapping and all that stuff.
Santa arrives early on December 7, 2007.
Update November 27,
2007: A Friends newsletter subscriber, Oscar Fitzgerald,
offered $1,000 to purchase three Garmin GPS units that meet
the Park's requirements. Many thanks for your generous
offer. Mission accomplished. Thank you, Santa!
4.
Bed-mount storage box for the new truck our Friends are
buying for use at Stone Door (to store emergency medical
response gear) - our Friends group has put up the money
($13,000) to buy us a truck for the Stone Door Ranger
Station. Our mommy and daddy say they do not have the
budget for this truck and we really need it so the Ranger
will always have a vehicle available for emergencies.
This box will really help us. You could put # 14 below
in the box, save some space in your sleigh.
Update November 27,
2007: A suitable storage box has been made available.
Thank you, Santa!
5.
Three spine boards for emergency medical use - so each of
the Ranger Stations and the Visitor Center can have one.
6.
Three wheeled Stokes baskets for rescue use - ditto the
spine boards
7.
Additional climbing harnesses for our programs - our Rangers
have a climbing and rappelling program they do at Stone Door
and our Friends group has already bought us a bunch of gear
and ropes and stuff. BUT, if we had more harnesses we
could handle larger groups. Kids of all ages enjoy
this program. It is one of the most popular at the Park.
With your flying reindeer and all this may not seem too
exciting to you, but for those of us who can't fly, it's
very exciting walking backwards over a 400 foot tall cliff
on a skinny rope!
8.
We are not too sure what you can do about this one, but we
need lots of volunteers to help with
A. Monitoring the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid - see 3
above
B.
Rebuilding the trail to Horse Pound Falls
C.
Rebuilding the trail between Hobbs Cabin & Sawmill
Campgrounds
D.
Rebuilding the North Plateau Trail
Our Friends group is going to organize volunteer
opportunities after Christmas, but if you have any
volunteers you can bring us before then we will put them to
work. What are the elves doing after Christmas?
It is a lot warmer down here than at the North Pole.
9. We need a new roof for the Savage Gulf Ranger
Station. Our mommy and daddy say this is not in the
budget. DON’T LAND YOUR SLEIGH ON THE ROOF!!!!
Please leave the roofing materials in the maintenance
parking lot, thank you.
10. This is a tough one. We need to build a gravel
access road to the Dinky Line campground. Right now,
the only way the Rangers can get there is on foot.
11. This one is even tougher. We need to
re-survey and mark the Park boundaries and we have a VERY
large Park with lots of properties.
12. Since 1993 our Friends group and our mommy and
daddy have been purchasing as much land as we can afford to
protect the viewshed of our wilderness properties so that
when people walk the trails, all they see is wilderness.
Our generous Friends and others have donated more than
$500,000 to purchase land and easements. We still have
some money but property values around the Park keep going
up. Whatever you have available in large or small
bills, we will be glad to unload them for you at the Visitor
Center. I would personally bring you a bottle of Jack
Daniels or Prichard's Fine Rum but liquor is not allowed in
the Park. (Stop by my house I won’t tell anybody!)
13. Several years ago our Friends group and the
Monteagle Sunday School Assembly worked together with
Habitat for Humanity to build a Ranger house at Grundy
Forest. We need another house at Grundy Lakes to
provide better security for our visitors. This would
be a big help. We will build the house if you will
bring the materials. Or, what are the elves doing
after Christmas?
14.
Blue lights to replace worn out lights & siren on
park patrol truck & to install on the new Stone Door patrol
truck. Our mommy and daddy do not have the truck in
the budget so they don’t have the light bar in the budget
either. We will have to have this for the Ranger to
drive fast to emergency calls. You know, you can’t be
a REAL Ranger without a light bar.
15.
We know you have plenty of these. We sure
could use a 4-wheeler to patrol jeep roads on south end of
the park. Some of these old logging roads are too
rough for even a four wheel drive truck. We promise
this will only be used for work and no one will smile while
riding it.
16.
This
may seem pretty dumb, but we need a new vacuum cleaner for
the Visitor Center to replace a worn-out vacuum cleaner that
makes a lot of noise but doesn’t suck up much of anything
except electricity. Mommy and daddy got us a new floor
and we need a way to keep it as clean as possible or they
may get mad at us. If you saw daddy, you wouldn’t want
him mad at you either.
Anyway,
this is the end of our list and we really appreciate your
reading this long letter. It could be that some of our
Friends members will want to give us some of these gifts for
Christmas, and if they do we will let you know as soon as
possible.
Be
careful on your December 24 journey and thank you for all of
your hard work. Our best wishes to Mrs. Claus, all of
the elves and reindeer. Even if you can’t bring us
anything, we still love all of you. We believe in you,
Santa! Thanks a million.
Wishing
you the merriest of Christmases,
Ron
Castle on behalf of the Rangers & Staff at South Cumberland
State Park
P.S. November 29, 2007:
The Park thought they were going to receive a LCD projector
for presentations at the Visitor Center but just found out
it is not coming through. So, please add this to the
list, thank you.
|
