The Village Park is a great place to hike, picnic or simply relax. Come and walk amongst the hemlock groves, the fern-edged trails and the rocky outcrops, or stop and rest in one of the picturesque gazebos.
The 40-acre park is managed by The Nature Museum, where information and maps are available. The trails are open to the public year round and are located behind The Nature Museum. They can be accessed from Townshend Road, or from Fire Pond Road.
Volunteers For Peace Blitz Grafton Trails
On August 8, 2010 ten extraordinary international volunteers from Volunteers For Peace [VFP] arrived in Grafton on a work mission to improve trails at the Village Park and the Grafton Ponds Outdoor Center. The VFP project in Grafton was a collaboration between The Nature Museum and the Windham Foundation which involved two teachers from Spain and eight college-age students: two young men from South Korea, one from Italy, and five young women -- one each from France, Germany, Japan, Spain, and Taiwan.
Volunteers For Peace -- a non-profit membership organization founded in 1982 and based in Belmont, Vermont -- aims for a more peaceful world through the promotion of International Voluntary Service (also called International Workcamps) "as an effective means of intercultural education, service learning and community development." VFP partners with like-minded organizations around the globe to provide projects, such as the one in Grafton, where people from diverse backgrounds join together to help communities meet local needs and improve life on the Earth. As participants work and live together, almost like a family, they share daily life with each other and the communities in which they are working. Workers come to appreciate each other and other peoples, places, and cultures. Working together toward a common goal and finding solutions to daily problems or tasks at hand, they resolve conflicts and build a better foundation for reason and peace through this learning and serving experience. Meanwhile they are also forming some amazing and lasting friendships, with Nature as the great leveler and facilitator.
Read the full story (PDF).
Thank You!
Thanks go to the many businesses, organizations, and people who provided amenities and contributed in other ways to make the daily lives of the volunteers cleaner, more delicious, and more interesting. Kim and Edward Bank, Janet and John Bramley, Maggie Stewart, Chris Wallace, and Suzi and Bob Youatt offered shower facilities. Laurie and Will Danforth, Lisa Defresne, Grafton Cares, Phil Morgan, Melissa Post, Joy Wah Chinese Restaurant in Bellows Falls, Lois and Dick Sippel, Sandy Stevens, and Chris Wallace provided meals and/or help with them. Lisai's Market in Chester and Mark and Sue Rushton provided meat. Harlow's in Westminster, Debe Plummer, Joe Plummer,
Mark and Sue Rushton, and Camilla and Silos Roberts gave vegetables, eggs, or other produce. Thanks also go to Mack's Place for its gift card, to the Grafton Grocery Market for a line of credit, and to the Old Tavern for dessert and a concert the first week and flat bread pizzas the next.
Monetary contributions from Cheryl Cox, the Fenton/Wu Family, Audrie Haag, Sue and George Nostrand, Chester Hardware, and Village Printers helped finance necessary supplies. Kim Bank, Melissa and Irwin Post, and Wendell Rogers helped Museum staff with transportation. Ivor Stevens donated his four-wheel, dump-body Gator to haul dirt supplied by the Windham Foundation to fill holes on the Red Trail at the Village Park. We are grateful to all of them.
