Patrick Flynn, sales arborist for Hartney Greymont (pictured center), accepts the President's Award
from the National Association of State Park Directors for his New Year's Day hiking event.
May/June 2016 |
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HIKE SPURS NATIONAL PARKS EVENT
A 25-year New Year's Day hiking tradition created by a Davey employee has
expanded to all 50 U.S. states.
Patrick Flynn, sales arborist for Hartney Greymont, a Davey company, came
up with the idea for a New Year's Day hike in 1991 while working as a parks
superintendent for Blue Hills Reservation in Boston.
"I was always looking for ways to steer people into our state parks, particularly
when there wasn't much going on in the Boston area," Flynn says. On a late
autumn day, Pat thought to himself, "The afternoon of New Year's Day is pretty
dead. Perhaps we could offer a January 1st hiking event?"
Flynn's staff agreed, but he wasn't confident the public would show up.
"We had 350 people attend the first year," Flynn says. When Flynn's boss arrived
at the event, he gave him a compliment he will never forget.
"You, sir, have created a traffic jam," his boss said. What Flynn had done was turn
a typically slow day for the parks into a high-traffic day. One year saw a record
attendance of 1,400 participants at the Blue Hills Reservation.
Now 25 years later, Flynn's idea sparked a nationally recognized event. First Day
Hikes is the first event adopted by all state park systems in the country.
At the 2016 New Year's First Day Hikes event, Flynn was welcomed back to Blue
Hills Reservation to accept a President's Award from the National Association of
State Park Directors.
Flynn retired as director of the State Park's Urban division and, as a second career,
has worked for Hartney Greymont for the past six years.
"I still enjoy seeing people visit our state parks," says Flynn. "It was an honor
to accept the President's Award and always great to come back to see my old
colleagues and friends from my parks career."
Davey's Patrick Flynn, sales arborist for
Hartney Greymont, serves clam chowder, the
traditional dish for the event, to hikers at the
Blue Hills Reservation during the First Hike
event on New Year's Day in 1998.
Patrick Flynn works happily in his new career
as a sales arborist for Hartney Greymont.
MY DAVEY
