Brothers of Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE) Fraternity finished a four-day volunteer project at the Environmental Center on November 12, 2015. Jon Murray, a Class of 2011 Pace graduate and brother of DKE, spearheaded the project: building an entrance to the fit trail by the Environmental Center with the help of junior Simon Driver III, junior Diego Caro, senior Joshua Imasuen, and junior Richard Stewart.

Murray spent two months in Tres Piedras, New Mexico at Earthship Biotecture studying self-sustainable building practices such as active solar energy harvesting, water catchment systems, contained sewage treatment systems, in-house food production systems, passive solar thermal heating and cooling, and building with natural and recycled materials. He befriended teachers in the program during his time there and recruited one for the project at Pace.

“Fortunately, the active brothers of DKE and I were supervised by one of the top builders from Earthship Biotecture who flew to New York from New Mexico to oversee the project. That being said, the building process was nothing but smooth sailing,” Murray said.

Murray purchased the lumber at Millwood Supply in Millwood, New York. Using tools from Phillip Imperial of Chappaqua and the Environmental Center, the brothers worked together to build the entrance.

“The lumber yard informed us that the materials would take two days to deliver, which would have been a major setback for the project. Thankfully, brothers from Alpha Phi Delta, Damen Bonis and Ryan Lewis, were kind enough to assist us in transporting the material in Ryan’s pickup truck,” Murray said. “I was grateful that another fraternity was willing to assist us is this matter. It just goes to show some organizations can put pride aside and work together to accomplish a common goal.”

DKE worked through the rain and mud to complete the project. They created a solid foundation of rocks underneath the bridge to make the entrance stable and durable throughout all weather conditions.

“Since it was raining the last couple of days, we were hammering the posts in, and the ground started to collapse. We pushed the mud and rocks together to support the final post,” Driver said. “What is really cool is that the bridge is also over a stream. We are just waiting on water.”

The entrance to the fit trail is just phase one. Spring will bring the second part of the project.

“The finish work includes staining the wood, hand carving a sign to hang from the cross beam, building two benches on either side of the bridge, constructing a set of steps into the hill which will lead, and potentially planting vines that will grow up the posts and over the cross beam,” Murray said.

Murray and Driver hope that other students will be involved in the spring segment of the project.

“The trail needs a lot of work and student volunteers could make a huge difference. Most of the work consists of renovating the weathered exercise stations,” Murray said.

According to James Eyring, Assistant Director of the Environmental Center, the fit trail has now been named Song Bird Nature Trail.

“My hopes are that our hard work and dedication will inspire some students to respect the campus grounds and engage in similar future volunteer projects. There is a lot of unspoken beautiful history here at Pace, and I hope some students will take the time to uncover it,” Murray said.

Gallery • 2 Photos

Photo taken by Catharine Conway/The Pace Chronicle.

Pictured from left to right: Diego Caro, Jon Murray and Joshua Imasuen.