Volunteer Spotlight: Marianne
Marianne Eick
Trailblazer, Healthy Adventures Lead Volunteer, and Park Ambassador
Retirement and a move to western Stark County showed Marianne Eick how many local trails there were in the area. After enjoying many park-sponsored events, she became a volunteer in 2013 and serves as an ambassador at community events encouraging people to visit the parks, a trailblazer reporting any potential issues on the trails, and plans and leads group hikes through the Healthy Adventure program often introducing people to new trails and making new members feel welcome.
Here very first time volunteering was helping sign in participants at a woodcarving program and there hasn’t been much she hasn’t helped or experienced since that day. She has logged over 13,000 miles either biking or hiking over the years and tried experiences like kayaking, archery, WOW campouts, yoga, and most likely has been on just about every mile of trail and visited each park at least once. She uses these experiences to offer suggestion to park visitors and potential park visitors from her first-hand knowledge.
Marianne recommends volunteering because of the flexibility and variety of ways there are to volunteer. From indoor to outdoor and little physical activity to more strenuous. She has met wonderful friends and has traveled to hiking and biking destinations around the country with them, something she never expected to do when she decided to volunteer.
