Cornelius’ Corner: “Thank You Volunteers!”
Cornelius enjoying his first ever Christmas tree!
Good afternoon friends,
Are you excited for the holidays yet? I’ve been enjoying hanging out at my coworker Jessica’s house while the Visitor Center is under construction. It means I get to celebrate Christmas with friends and I even have my own Cornelius-sized Christmas tree!
My co-workers host a once-monthly get together for our volunteers to get feedback and provide important updates. Last week, I got to help Jessica prep for our December get together. To help celebrate the holidays, we put together a quick look back at all of the amazing things that volunteers did in 2025. Boy have they been busy! I thought more people should see this list, so I decided to include it in my December blog with one accomplishment for every month of the year.
Anthony Constable shows off a water sample from the West Branch of Chester Creek
January: Conducted 2 township-wide water monitoring surveys with our friends at Concord Township, the Delaware County Office of Sustainability, and Stroud Water Research Center
February: Completed the PA Mills Project for SPOOM (Society for the Preservation of Old Mills), which involved inventorying and organizing all of the Society’s records for known mills in Pennsylvania!
https://newlingristmill.org/field-trip-time/
March: Completed habitat improvement projects in the site’s outdoor classrooms and high-value natural areas, including the installation of bird boxes built with help from Bird Town Pennsylvania, Valley Forge Audubon Society, and the Youth Wildlife Initiative.
Scouts from Troop 5039 show off their bags of pulled Garlic Mustard
April: Removed invasive plant species from the grounds to keep our wildlife and wildflowers safe and healthy, including pulling over 250 gallons of garlic mustard
Happy smiling Summer Discovery campers
May: Hosted over 2,200 visitors for tours, field trips, historic demonstrations, and Summer Discovery camp
Lauren Kok and Brian Carroll show a visitor how to screen for artifacts
June: Got the Visitor Center ready for its big move, including removing decking, packing materials, and relocating the front desk to its temporary home in the Archive
https://newlingristmill.org/cornelius-corner-raising-the-roof/
July: Expanded our understanding of the history of the Trimble House through archaeological excavations and introduced over 350 visitors to archaeology
Agilent Technologies clearing the Osage Trail
August: Kept over 8 miles of trails and boardwalks beautiful and accessible for all visitors in the face of wind storms, fast-growing shrubs, and a bumper crop of black walnuts
Ellen Dougherty and Jan Myers Knight hand out ducks during the Race for the Watershed
September: Hosted six major special events for over 2,000 participants, including the Fisherman’s Breakfast, Earth Day, Race for the Watershed 5K & Duck Race, the Fall Festival, and two historic meals.
Univest employees plant grasses above the wetland boardwalk for erosion prevention
October: Finished Phase 2 of the wetland project, including planting over 1,000 grasses and wildflowers, installing new boardwalks, and connecting the wetland to the Millrace trail with a new stairway.
Dave Collins repairs the fish hut
November: Worked on maintenance projects in and around the Mill, Miller’s House, Maintenance Shop, Trimble House, and Fish Hut (tool shed)
Kevin Magerr, Michael Knight, and Tony Shahan working in the Millwright Shop
December: Made huge progress in the Millwright Shop on the water wheel and water box, so it will be ready to install early in 2026! Photo by Anthony Constable
This is by no means an exhaustive list of all that our volunteers have done in 2025, but I thought my blog would probably be too long if I tried to include more. Just know that the staff appreciates everything that our volunteers do, and that they are a major part of the site’s success!
P.S. if you are interested in joining the volunteer program, you can email Jessica at jshahan@newlingristmill.org. As you can see, we have lots of different activities to choose from!
Happy holidays from your friendly (not currently in the) neighborhood corn snake,
-Cornelius
