Keystone Trails Association recently announced that Sherry Ferguson of Towamensing Township has been named the Thyra Sperry Volunteer of the Year by Pennsylvania’s statewide hiking organization. The winner receives a framed certificate and an engraved hiking stick.

Ferguson has been a member of the Keystone Trails Association’s Appalachian Trail Section Committee since its inception. The group cares for a section of the Appalachian Trail that had been rerouted decades ago due to environmental damage from the Palmerton zinc smelting plant at Lehigh Gap, a Superfund site.

Her work with the committee contributed to a recent milestone: a section of the Appalachian Trail near Palmerton has been permanently returned to a path that now features wonderful views of the Lehigh Gorge.

Committee Chair Jim Foster noted that Ferguson has attended every scheduled work trip and personally maintains a section of the Appalachian Trail. She recently agreed to be the “blaze-master” of the group, traveling up and down KTA’s 10-mile section of the Appalachian Trail, making sure the rectangular paint blazes are fresh and visible.

Katie Barker, KTA board president, announced the award at the nonprofit’s annual meeting at the Sons and Daughters of Italy Lodge in Lock Haven on Oct. 16. The engraved staff was presented to Ferguson at Lacawac Sanctuary earlier this month by KTA member Richard Martin.

Martin said, “It takes most hikers 10 or 15 years before becoming trail maintainers. Not Sherry. As a member of the Lehigh Gap trail maintainers, she participates in ‘Pulaski Parties’ - building footpaths with shovels, rock bars, pickaxes and Pulaski.”

The annual award is named in honor of Richard’s late wife, Thyra Sperry, whose devoted service to Pennsylvania’s hikers and trails exemplified the spirit of the hiker-volunteer.

Ferguson said she was “honored to receive the sturdy hiking staff on behalf of Thyra’s legacy of service to the KTA. I plan on continuing my volunteer commitment as long as I am able.”

Founded in 1956, the Keystone Trails Association is a volunteer-directed federation of membership organizations and individuals dedicated to providing, preserving, protecting and promoting recreational hiking trails and hiking opportunities in Pennsylvania.