(Editor’s note: Dr. Kathryn Lewis contributed information to this article.)
Four years ago, the boy scouts of Troop 300, Tyrone high school’s agricultural students and director William Harshman, helped scout Aaron Scordo with plans to create a meditation trail at the Tyrone Hospital. It was designed to provide a quiet, beautiful area where visitors, staff and patients of the Tyrone Hospital can find a place to walk, to pay for a loved one, or contemplate a problem.
The trail was built, but over the years, the mulch on the paths had worn thin.
Earlier this week, the members of local Troop 300 and Scoutmaster Pete Kreckel and Troop 103, with shovels in hand, returned to the trail for some much-needed repair work.
“It’s similar to the ‘Jamboree’ camping in name,” said Kreckel. “We’re calling it ‘Mulchoree’.”
The trail is open to the public and residents are invited to enjoy it.
The trail was a dream for the late Rev. Dr. Samuel T. “Ted” Lewis III.
Lewis, a Tyrone native, had a vision of a walking path around the hospital grounds to serve as a place where those people visiting patients could walk, meditate or take a break from the waiting room while attending to their loved one being cared for.
Now, it is also a memorial area. At present, trees and plantings honoring the memory of Dr. Daniel Friday, Dr. Reed Allison, Betty Simpson, nurse Barbara Zimmerman, and Lewis line the trail.
In the near future, a tree is to be planted in memory of Mr. Earl Pelter, employee and hospital administrator from 1955 to 1982.
Lewis was a graduate of Tyrone Area high School, and in 1953, he received a bachelor of music degree from the Peabody Conservatory of Music at Johns Hopkins University. He received the Master of Divinity degree in 1958 from Western Theological Seminary, and was then ordained to the gospel ministry by the Presbytery of Huntingdon on June 22, 1958.
He was an active member in the community, serving as president of the Tyrone Revitalization Committee, president of the Tyrone-Snyder Public Library, and a participant in the Sinking Valley Farm Show.
He was also an avid gardener, working to beautify Tyrone by planting flowers at various locations throughout the community.
The hospital is grateful for the work, the donation of the mulch by K & F Wood Products of Beccaria, and to Rick Miller, who delivered the mulch to the trail.
