As she saw it, those giving their time would become their own beneficiaries - improving the environment, gaining pride in accomplishment and getting a chance to visit a national park. This year the organization that grew out of that thesis, the Student Conservation Association, headquartered in Charlestown, N.H., will provide more than a million hours of volunteer time to national parks and other federal, state and local organizations. Since Putnam launched the SCA in 1957, about 35,000 people have volunteered through its programs. To the best of our knowledge there is not another organization that does what we do on a national basis. The SCA matches high school and college students and graduates with conservation projects, most often in national parks, Shand said.
Programs based in several cities reach out to women and people of color.
In 1999 about 2,200 SCA volunteers will serve throughout the country. N.Y. But for many summers her family took to the wilderness. She, her parents, and her brother camped in Canada, taking the train that ran from Montreal to Quebec to reach a whistle stop in the middle of nowhere. From there they hiked three days with guides to reach her father's camp. Just the four of them camping, fishing and hiking the Canadian woods and hills.