Joy and Jim Dunno
Metro Parks Volunteers at Blendon Woods
Why we volunteer at Metro Parks, what we do and what we love most about it
JOY
We’ve been retired for many years now. Both of us are very familiar with Metro Parks as users. I grew up in Grove City and remember going to Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park a lot. I especially loved playing in the creek. When my kids, Kim and Matt, were little I used to take them to Slate Run. They loved seeing the animals at the living historical farm. They were not quite into their teens when I married again, to Jim, who had two daughters of his own, Jennifer and Beth. They all loved going to the parks with us. We’d go mostly to Battelle Darby Creek, Blendon Woods and Sharon Woods.
After we’d retired, Jim and I hiked a lot at the parks, and went to a lot of Full Moon Walks at Sharon Woods, when Allison Shaw was the naturalist there. We were looking for more ways of filling our time, and volunteering at the parks seemed a great way of giving back to the parks, after we had got so much from them over so many years. As we live in Johnstown, Blendon Woods was about the closest Metro Park to us, so that’s why we volunteer there. It’s about 15 miles away from our house.
Jim first began volunteering at Blendon Woods in 2012 and I signed up as a volunteer there in 2015. Ever since then, we’ve been a volunteer double act. Every Monday, we work at the Blendon Woods Nature Center from noon to 3pm.
JIM
Weekends are busy at the nature center and we usually find we have a good amount of cleaning to do at the start of our volunteering day. We sweep the floors, clean the windows and wipe down surfaces, make sure everything looks in good shape for our visitors. We also fill the bird feeders and keep the bird blinds clean. I like to fix things, too. I’ve mended a few broken chairs in my time, and I built a poster box to hold leaflets and park brochures.
JOY
I really enjoy greeting visitors and introducing them to the nature center’s ambassador animals. They’re fed twice a week, and one of those times is during our Monday session. Kids, especially, love to see the animals feeding. My favorite is Jabba the Hutt, which is our female American toad. We also have Leo the leopard frog, a spotted salamander called Sally, three box turtles, named Don Juan, Mable, and Lady, a painted turtle, called Picasso, and a map turtle, named Dora. We also have a black ratsnake, named Dale, who is now in his twenties, which is getting old for a ratsnake.
The animals stay in their cages while feeding, so kids can’t touch them, but we do sometimes lay out a table with the center’s animal pelts and skins. We have pelts of a skunk, a red fox, raccoon, coyote, mink, beaver, and squirrel. Kids can touch the furs and it leads to lots of fascinating questions. I love interacting with kids at the nature center. They’re always so interested in what you’re telling them. It makes me feel like I missed my calling as a teacher.
JIM
As well as the pelts, we have a turtle shell, of a red-eared slider. We tell the kids that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ shells were based on a red-eared slider shell, and that always gets them keen and interested. We also sign-up to volunteer at a number of park programs. My favorites are the nighttime lantern hikes, which happen throughout the year.
JOY
We sign-up to quite a few hiking programs. We usually stay at the back of the line and make sure that everyone on the hike, even those who might start to trail behind, get safely to the end and have a couple of volunteers to talk to. Some other programs that we always volunteer at include Mud Day, where the kids always have a blast, and the Monarch Weekend. We get hundreds of visitors for that one. Monarch butterflies are tagged and released in their thousands to start their migration to Mexico.
JIM
The other program that we always volunteer at is the Blendon Woods Winter Hike. We still get thousands of visitors coming to the hike, although we don’t have the same food service, after Covid. We still serve donuts and hot cocoa. Back in the day, I used to heat up the buttermilk biscuits that we’d serve with Blendon Woods’ chicken noodle soup.
JOY
I used to serve it. We’d put a hot buttermilk biscuit in the bowl and ladle soup over the top of it. That’s what made it special. It was famous, the Blendon Woods soup.
JIM
We also volunteer occasionally at other parks. We have worked archery programs at Sharon Woods, Highbanks and Glacier Ridge. We were taught the finer points of archery by naturalists here at Blendon Woods.
JOY
Hiking at the parks has always been our favorite activity when we swop hats and become park visitors. We especially like hilly trails. Blendon Woods has some nice hilly trails, and so does Highbanks.
My favorite Metro Parks story that includes a positive or memorable visitor interaction
JOY
About a year and a half ago, we were volunteering on a summer walk at Blendon Woods. As usual, we were bringing up the rear, making sure everyone was doing okay. There were three ladies walking together and one of them fell down and actually passed out. I managed to get her sitting up against a tree and slowly she came round, but she was in no condition to start walking again. I managed to get a message through to our rangers and medics were called.
I stayed with that lady for about 45 minutes until the medics arrived, just talking to her, keeping her calm. She told me she was trying to lose weight and that she hadn’t eaten all day. She hadn’t drunk any water either. It was a lesson for her, and I think it’s an excellent lesson for all of us, that when we plan to go out on a hike in the woods, especially on a hot summer day, that we keep ourselves hydrated by drinking plenty of water and that we make sure we’ve fuelled our body with energy by eating appropriately ahead of time. The poor lady was very grateful to me for staying with her and helping to keep her calm and stop her from worrying too much. When the medics arrived they assisted her and got her to hospital for observation and check-up.
A little more about us
JIM
I believe in service and giving back to country and community. I worked at GE Superabrasives for 30 years as a technician. We made industrial diamonds for use in all kinds of engineering and industrial applications. During that time, I served for 24 years in the US Naval Reserve. I was also a volunteer fireman and EMT in my local community of Johnstown. We’d be called out as needed to tackle fires or cope with medical emergencies.
In the Naval Reserve the commitment was for one weekend a month and a two-week training session each year. The training sessions were held at different naval bases across the United States, including at Norfolk, Virginia, San Diego, Florida and also in Cuba. I also spent two years on active duty, during the Vietnam War. I served on an ammunition ship called the USS Great Sitkin. All the naval ammunition ships are named after volcanoes. Great Sitkin is a volcano in Alaska, which last erupted in 2021. Our ship’s base was in a former military base in Bayonne, New Jersey. We didn’t see action in the war, but we were about to be sent to the Vietnam theater after a six-month Mediterranean cruise, but our orders were cancelled. The war ended a short time later. I saw a lot of the world during that two-year stint, including bases in the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and Scotland.
Every September, a group of reservists from the Great Sitkin get together for a four-day reunion in different cities, which have included Boston, New York, Chattanooga, Columbus in Georgia, Virginia Beach, various locations in Florida, Corpus Christie in Texas, and closer to home, Cleveland here in Ohio. For the past year or two I’ve become more heavily-involved in organizing the reunions. We have a dinner and dance on the last night of the reunion, which Joy always enjoys.
JOY
I had worked in banking and insurance in my earlier days. Once the kids were in High School I got a job working at Heartland Bank in Johnstown, as we needed more income for the kids’ future schooling. It was great. I worked there for a lot of years, right up to retirement.
Traveling – places we’ve been, places we’d love to go
JOY
In 2017 we had the trip of a lifetime, spending nine days in Ireland. We flew from New York to Dublin and then toured Ireland on a bus with a local tour company, CIE Tours. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and funny. We passed a lot of wonderful old castles. Our tour guide would say, “Here’s an ABC coming up, Another Bloody Castle!” My favorite part of the tour was stopping in Cong, a village on the borders of County Mayo and County Galway. It has a famous abbey and also, you guessed it, a castle. But it’s also where the movie, The Quiet Man, was filmed. It starred John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara and the scenery was virtually unchanged from the movie. It’s one of my favorite movies, so I loved getting to see it in the flesh. We also toured through County Kerry, which is famous for its cows. I love cows. The Kerry cattle are a rare breed of dairy cows, prized for their milk. They’re believed to be one of the first breeds of cattle bred especially for their milk.
JIM
The Ireland trip was great. I liked visiting the Guinness plant in Dublin, where I was taught the art of pulling a pint of this so-called Irish Liquid Gold. It tastes better there than over here. We also had a fantastic vacation in Hawaii in 1990. My brother was stationed there. He was in the army and we stayed on base with him. The base was on the island of Oahu, and very close to Pearl Harbor. We also had a flight to Maui, another of the Hawaiian islands, where we spent a day seeing the spectacular scenery and trying the local delicacy, pig and poi at a Luau.
JOY
The pig was delicious, cooked to perfection. But the poi! That was horrible! It’s a creamy sauce made from pounded taro roots and is considered a delicacy, served with the pig. It tasted like wallpaper paste to me! Ugh!
JIM
We enjoy going on cruises, too. We’ve been on about 15 cruises so far. One of our first cruises was to Caracas in Venezuela. A few of us took a jeep tour through the jungle. There were five jeeps, and five people per jeep. The guide stopped at a number of tiny villages of indigenous people in the jungle, which was fascinating. We stopped and swam at a gorgeous waterfall, then had a great meal and went shopping at a store, for locally-crafted jewelry. There was a heavily-armed guard at the jewelry store, which we found odd and unnerving. But then, just about a week after our cruise ended, protests broke out across the country and it led to an attempted coup to overthrow the government. So, we were lucky with our timing. It was a beautiful place.
JOY
We also visited St Kitts on a Caribbean cruise more recently and we did their famous zipline through the rainforest. You’re driven up the mountainside and strapped into a harness and helmet and off you go. They do give you a training session before you start, and it felt safe, but exhilarating. It’s a series of five different ziplines that transport you for more than a mile through the rainforest.
JIM
It starts out high above the tree canopy and you reach speeds of about 45 miles an hour as you near enough experience what it must feel like to fly.
JOY
I would love to go back to Ireland some day. I don’t know of any relatives there, but I do have some Irish ancestry way back in my family. Next time, I’d also like to visit England, especially to visit Port Isaac in Cornwall, which was the location of the fictional village of Portwenn, where the TV series “Doc Martin” was filmed. It was one of my favorite shows ever on PBS and ran for 10 seasons. I’d also like to visit Grassington, which is an ancient market town in Yorkshire. This is where another great show on PBS was filmed, “All Creatures Great and Small.”
Fun facts about us and our family
1. JOY – My daughter is an author! My daughter Kim worked as a journalist on a community newspaper, the Buckeye Lake Beacon. In May, this year, she published her first book, “Pressed Together,” which is set in and around Buckeye Lake and is a murder mystery which involves journalists. It’s published by a Christian Publishing House based in Tennessee. Kim’s second book in the series, “Packed Together,” is due to be published in December. Kim is calling it her ‘Together Series’ and is planning a third book to follow. Just look out for it in book stores or an Amazon, “Pressed Together” by Kim Garree. I couldn’t be more proud of her.
2. JIM – My daughter served in the US Navy! My daughter Jennifer joined the navy in 1997, soon after I retired. She studied meteorology with the navy and was based at the Pentagon in Washington for her full five-year tour of duty. She now works for the State of Ohio and produces detailed reports using GIS data. One such report identified the location of all known underground tanks in Ohio, both public and privately-owned. She also mapped out all the fire departments in Ohio and the specific districts they covered.
3. JOY – Our granddaughter is a pilot! Our granddaughter Kora is just 20 years old but she already has her pilot’s license. She was always keen on flying and began training for her pilot’s license at Newark Airport in Licking County, when she just 16 years old. She’s now studying Flight and Meteorology at Ohio University and should graduate this coming summer. She took us on a flight recently in a Piper Cub, to celebrate my birthday. It’s a four-seater plane, although it feels more like a three-and-a-half-seater plane. Jim sat in the back and I got to sit up front with the pilot. It was a fantastic experience.
My favorite food and dessert
JOY
I love a well-done hamburger with French fries and all the works – onions, cheese, lettuce and tomato. Or, as Jim says about it, ‘Run it through the garden.’ He enjoys grilling on our gas grill in our garden. I like making coconut crème pie, and that’s my favorite dessert.
JIM
A filet-mignon steak, that’s my favorite. Medium to well-done, and served with a baked potato and dinner rolls. For dessert, I really enjoy apple pie with a scoop of cinnamon ice cream. My favorite dessert ever would be the caramel crème brullé that I had onboard one of our cruise ships many years ago. I’ve tried other crème brullés in restaurants and store-bought over the years, but I’ve never found anything that comes close to being as delicious as that first time on board ship.
Our favorite entertainment
JOY
I enjoy reading biographies and about history, especially about the Civil War. I’ve read a series of books about Gettysburg and its impact on the war. One of my favorite authors is Shelby Foote. He wrote pure history and also some wonderful literature based on true events but including some fictional characters. Jim’s reading tastes are quite different from mine.
JIM
That’s right. I’m more into sci-fi books, about dragons or people with mystical powers. I’ve recently enjoyed reading two books by Rebecca Yarros, which feature dragons prominently. They’re the first two books of a series, with the third one due out this coming January. The first two are called “Fourth Wing” and “Iron Flame.” I also love the Sarah Mass “Throne of Glass” series, which is marketed as novels for young adults, but I’m in my seventies and I can’t get enough of them.
JOY
We also have separate tastes in movies, at least some of the time, although we both enjoyed the new Tom Hanks film, “Here,” which we saw recently. It’s a story about all the different kind of people who lived in a particular house over the course of a century. It’s both light-hearted and yet thought-provoking, with lots of sad and sombre moments amid the laughter. Jim prefers movies like “Minions,” which I’ll watch with him, but I don’t find them anywhere near as entertaining as he does. Downton Abbey, they were films that we enjoyed seeing together too, as well as the numerous seasons of them on PBS.
I’m looking forward to seeing the fifth season of “The Chosen” when it comes out shortly. It’s a drama about the life of Jesus. We were first introduced to it at our church, the Croton Church of Christ. Croton is a small village about a 15-minute drive away from our house in Johnstown.
Recently, we went to a concert by Celtic Thunder, a male group that performed at the Midland Theatre in Newark. It’s a wonderful old-theatre which seats around 1,800 people and it was full for the concert. Celtic Thunder have appeared frequently on PBS, performing traditional and more modern Irish songs.
JIM
That was a great concert. Sometimes we go out to a ball game. We like to go to a Columbus Clippers baseball game at least once a month during the season. For winter, we watch football on TV. I’m a Browns fan, but Joy likes to watch both Ohio teams, the Browns and the Bengals.
JOY
The other great interest we share is antiquing. At one time we bought a lot of antique furniture but we’re downsizing and looking for different artefacts now. I’m really interested in glass pieces, such as candlewick dishes and serving pieces.
JIM
I like to collect fire department antiques, such as old fire hydrants. And on the theme of glass pieces, one of my favorite artefacts is a glass fire extinguisher. They were filled with fire-suppressing chemicals and were designed to be thrown at a fire. The glass would break and the chemicals would help put out the fire. Fortunately, we have better means of putting out fires today, but as historical artefacts these glass fire extinguishers are fascinating.
Joy and Jim were talking to Communications Coordinator, Virginia Gordon
What Blendon Woods Naturalist Stephanie West says about Joy and Jim
“I can’t imagine a Monday morning without Jim and Joy! They are so much a part of the Blendon Woods team, whether it is hosting 90 curious 5th graders in the Nature Center, fixing the latest broken hinge/latch/wheel/gadget, cleaning the one millionth fingerprint off the windows, making sure the bird feeders are always filled, greeting every last person who comes through the door with a cheerful smile and a warm hello, or just brightening my day with some friendly banter and a good story. Metro Parks is privileged to be the recipient of their time and talents.”