(by Sara Etten – CTRC) Christopher Gurnett has always enjoyed volunteering at the Buffalo Central Terminal, and he’s been doing it for 3 years. But for Christopher that wasn’t enough. He wanted to do more to help a building that he believes, played a big role in Buffalo’s past.
So he approached the terminal’s board of directors and asked if he could do his eagle scout project there. The board thought it was a great idea, so he started asking for help from his boy scout troop in North Tonawanda.
On his first clean up last December, 37 volunteers showed up, removing 230 bags of old railroad papers from offices on the 4th floor. It was extremely hard work. Each bag had to be hand carried down 4 flights of stairs because the elevators have not worked in years.
Mike and the rest of the CTRC…I am continuously amazed at how the Terminal inspires people into action!
Great stuff!
Chris “Ozzy” Gurnett is a great kid and he’s put in a LOT of work over the past 3 years. I was there last Saturday, as his group of volunteers were lugging these hundreds of bags of debris down the stairs. They were all covered from head to toe with dust and ash from the mostly burned papers. They were all happy though!
Were any of the papers salvageable or were they too far gone?
Dave, there was nothing worth saving… mostly old bills of lading and damage claims from the 1970’s. We’ve (and decades of vandals) have already picked through the piles for anything of interest.
Thanks.