Jody-Lynn was looking for a meaningful way to honor her late husband when she joined AmeriCorps for a summer program in 2023.
In her sixties, Jody-Lynn was hardly ready for retirement. She had served in the Marines, owned and operated a business, and was a dedicated wife and mother. When her husband passed away in 2020, she felt a burning desire to make use of her time alone but wanted it to do something that her husband would have enjoyed, too.
“We were an outdoorsy bunch,” Jody-Lynn said. “When he passed, I requested donations be made in his name to the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference to continue his dream of creating more hiking spaces available to the public.”
It was that connection to the organization that Jody-Lynn first heard about AmeriCorps.
“There was an advertisement for AmeriCorps in the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference emails I received regularly,” she said.
The program favored volunteers under the age of 32, but that didn’t phase Jody-Lynn. She provided her extensive resume, which included details of her professional athletic performances while in her 50s, and program heads agreed to consider her so long as she could provide five people who would vouch for her wellness. She provided 10.
In May 2023, Jody-Lynn began the 450-hour program with the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference. Working Wednesdays through Sundays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., she helped teams build hiking trails and pathways until the work was complete in August. She said it was the most fun “work” she’d ever experienced.
“The people were absolutely the best I'd ever encountered,” Jody-Lynn said. “You know, people ask me why I wanted to do that kind of work, but I always told them, ‘I love to work. I love the outdoors. I love physical labor, and it is service in memory of my husband's love for hiking.’”
