River Dawgz begin Schuylkill River Trail trek

The River Dawgz consist of four team members (from left to right): Andrew Urban, Hunter Beane, John Wagner and Bailey McMillin.  Hunter Beane and Andrew Urban are both sophomores, while Hunter is a Childhood and Early Adolescent Education Major and Andrew is a Finance Major.  Bailey McMillin and John Wagner are both juniors and Criminal Justice Majors.

We plan to operate under the use of 4Cs in order to achieve our goal with Mr. Bob Folwell, the Schuylkill River Heritage Area Trail Project Manager.  The 4Cs include: communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity.  Communication is the ability to share or exchange ideas in a professional manner among teammates and with Mr. Folwell.  Good communication will lead to collaboration, where Mr. Folwell and the River Dawgz will work jointly on reaching the team goal and end product.  The communication and collaboration between team members will involve critically thinking on how to improve the Schuylkill River Heritage Area.  Finally, creativity will include the use of imagination and original ideas to form an integrative and intriguing final product.

After our meeting with Mr. Bob Folwell in today’s class, we decided to focus on the creation of a map of trail access routes in one neighborhood of Reading to the Schuylkill River Trail.  The Schuylkill River Trail (SRT) access is limited as it passes through riparian communities such as Reading and West Reading.  We plan to develop routes to connect a single neighborhood to the SRT by bus, walking, and/or biking.  Our group’s focus will be on a neighborhood such as Glenside because its geographic location is close to the trail.  In our final presentation, we will display a map with the routes we have tested and chosen.  A map of the City of Reading can be found at http://www.city-data.com/nbmaps/neigh-Reading-Pennsylvania.html, as we will be using this in the upcoming weeks to walk the trails in beautiful, Fall weather.  Mr. Folwell will be receiving emails as we progress with the project.  In addition, the River Dawgz would like to research waste and recycling in park systems.