Fourteen months following Irene, families are moving back home and businesses are reopening, but for some, there are tasks just too big to take on without major help.Thursday, the Slate Valley Museum in Granville got the help they needed: a $100,000 landscaping project that would've never been possible without helping hands.
More than 70 Great Escape employees left the amusement park to help the community for the park's fourth-annual Day of Service.
“There’s a lot of manpower here a lot of people coming together,” said Gary Baker, a Great Escape employee.
One year ago, rushing water flooded the Slate Valley Museum during Irene. They salvaged the artifacts and have reopened, but haven't had the resources to rebuild the surrounding area.
“The scope of this project is unlike anything we've tried to accomplish before,” said Great Escape Communications Director Rebecca Close.
The Great Escape crew came in with bobcats, trucks, power tools, rakes, and shovels to bring the museum and its surrounding cultural campus back to life.
“If there is one takeaway we've had, is we have an amazing community,” said Slate Valley Museum Executive Director Kathryn Weller. “It has made it possible for us to rebound an amazing amount in one year.”
The volunteers completed a stone walkway that connects the two museums and the rail trail. They put up new siding, moved sheds, painted, planted, and worked on special projects, like a slate fountain.
“The stones that you see were actually mined out of quarries, cut by hand, and turned into sidewalks,” explained third-generation slate maker Paul Labas.
All of Thursday’s work will help preserve history in the Slate Valley community.
“To see it coming back to life like this almost brings a tear to my eye, it’s from my heart,” Labas said.
There will be a celebration at the museum next Thursday, October 25 from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m.
