When the world shut down in 2020 due to the pandemic, I found a sanctuary at Flat Rock Brook Nature Center in Englewood, New Jersey. The pandemic had flipped my world upside down, turning everything familiar into something almost frightening, especially due to the lack of contact with friends. However, these trails provided something I was missing, time with my family and time outdoors. I walked these trails almost daily, embracing the sense of peace it provided me.

What I didn‘t see is the people making this peace possible. Nothing maintained itself, every cleared area and spotless pathway was the work of dedicated volunteers working to keep it clean. This realization didn’t hit me until early 2026 where I found that appreciation for community spaces doesn‘t come from using them, it comes from sustaining them.

Returning to Flat Rock Brook as a volunteer, helping to maintain these same areas I once used, felt like a flashback to 2020 when I walked these trails. I spent weekends pulling out invasive plants, clearing leaves, and planting. The work wasn’t necessarily easy, it involved a lot of physical labor and the occasional prick of a thorny branch. However, this experience gave me something that simply walking could never truly achieve. There‘s a sort of satisfaction in completing physical labour that passive enjoyment can’t completely replicate. While walking a trail might have brought me peace, helping to maintain creates a connection to the environment and this gave me a new appreciation for the space around me.

This experience helped me realize that these spaces don‘t take care of themselves and need more active volunteers. You may be thinking “I don’t have time” but you really don‘t need much. Most volunteer shifts only run two to three hours with participation being completely optional. I’m not telling you to go everyday, I‘m telling you to try it out for a day just to experience it. Volunteer work doesn’t require a resume. They need volunteers who are willing to show up. Passion, not expertise, is the real entry requirement for these cleanups.

In a time when much of life happens behind screens, volunteer work offers something increasingly rare: tangible results. Something that shows that you did something, something you can be proud of. Volunteers come from all over, in my time I‘ve seen younger students, older parents, even the occasional dog, people who would otherwise never meet formed a connection through volunteerism.

You have your own Flat Rock Brook, somewhere like a park, a garden, or a local trail that has impacted you in a way you haven’t quite appreciated enough. It‘s easier to reach than you think, these parks normally have a simple volunteer form online. Stop watching from the sidelines, take this initiative and do something meaningful, something to give back to your community, something you can take pride in. Don’t just consume the spaces that helped you when you needed it most. Take action and forge a true connection with yourself and the world around you.

<Hamin Noh 학생기자 버겐카운티 테크니컬 스쿨 11학년>