Drew Williams’ recent volunteer work at the Sam D. Hamilton Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge combines two things he enjoys: service and the outdoors.
Williams is a junior studying forestry at Mississippi State University, an Eagle Scout and an active member of the Baptist Student Union. Taking time out of his Saturday morning recently to help unload canoes from trailers on the banks of Bluff Lake “seemed like something worthwhile to do,” he said.
He grew up in Friendswood, Texas, a suburb of Houston, and attended Friendswood United Methodist Church. Their summer service program, UM Army, “really energized Drew,” his father, John, said. The group of teenagers and young adults spends a week repairing houses in a smaller city in Texas.
Faith has been an important part of Williams’ life recently, he said.
“I’ve been trying, especially recently, to let the Lord dictate my path,” he said. “Though it’s not always easy, I’ve been trying more and more to get into that. I’ve been immersing myself in the Word more often.”
Williams and five other BSU members were hoping to go canoeing when they showed up at the wildlife refuge on Sept. 14, only to find out canoe day was the following Saturday. Vicki Maples, one of the three adults present, said they joked that the students could help them place pine straw around the visitors’ center.
The six students went into a huddle for a few minutes, Maples said, and then decided to take the opportunity seriously.
“They came walking up and said, ‘We want to help,’ and my jaw just hit the floor,” said Maples, a member of the Friends of Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge board.
The group of nine finished the project in much less time than the original group of three would have, and Williams asked while they worked if there were other volunteer opportunities, Maples said.
He came back a week later, without any fellow students but with his father who was visiting for the MSU football game against the University of Kentucky. They worked with two other volunteers to carry three trailers’ worth of canoes down a gravel slope to the water’s edge. Williams later demonstrated proper paddling techniques to two canoeing novices.
He developed “an appreciation for the woods” as a Boy Scout, and though he was a civil engineering major when he started school at MSU, “I always had forestry in the back of my mind,” he said.
His coursework in the field has included soil samples, tree measurements and wildlife damage management. Some of those classes have taken place at the wildlife refuge, which he said is well-managed compared to some others.
A few other parks and wildlife areas Williams especially enjoys are Natchez Trace in Mississippi, Sipsey Wilderness in Alabama and Big Bend National Park and Bastrop State Park in Texas.
“(In) outdoor areas such as this, you can always find some spot where you find solace and peace out here that you can’t find when you’re surrounded by people,” Williams said. “There’s just something about nature specifically that restores more than anything else.”
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