Westmont Students Pitch In to Improve Cold Spring School Pathways

Team sports met manual labor last Sunday when Westmont athletes laid down road base and smoothed dirt to improve the walking paths around Cold Spring Elementary School. Donations from Montecito Trails Foundation, Cold Spring Landscape, and Santa Barbara Stone helped Westmont Athletic Director Dave Odell and the Bucket Brigade’s Abe Powell organize the event, for which 230 students signed up to create an improved surface for the walkways just down the street from the college.

Drainage work had been done beforehand for the paths along Sycamore Canyon Road and Cold Spring Road, said participant Ashley Mayfield of Montecito Trails. “The kids did some clearing of brush and debris for a wood chip path,” she said. “It was a lot of physical labor on a very hot day.” The students worked in their team groups, she described, under the leadership of their team captains. Some will use the paths on cross-country workouts themselves, she said, though during the work day, the kids were mostly quizzing each other for an upcoming test.