CRESTINE―After 24 years as a Crawford Park District Commissioner, Richard Carpenter has decided to hang up his hat. His dedication to the Crawford Park District has made an enormous impact on the quality of life in Crawford County.

In the early 1990s, Carpenter was approached by a group of kids looking for a place to collect leaves for a school project.  Rich took them down to Carpenter’s Bottom, a family-owned woods just outside of Bucyrus.  It wasn’t necessarily the kids needing a place to collect leaves, but a comment made by a girl in the group that really hit home to Carpenter: she excitedly announced it as her first time in a “deep woods.”

Rich commented about her remark years later.

“I thought that with the disappearance of the family farm, there must be many kids just like her.  So, I started the idea of a natural area for young kids to learn about nature first-hand,” Carpenter said.

Carpenter led a steering committee that researched the many facets of starting a park district. The group organized field trips to other districts to see which assets could be brought to Crawford County.  The other goal of the steering committee was to build county-wide support.

After a two-year process of researching and talking with citizens, governments, and businesses throughout Crawford County, the Crawford Park District was officially formed on November 16, 1994, with Carpenter serving as one of the three original commissioners.

After more than two decades, Carpenter still sees the Park District growing in educational opportunities, volunteers and land.

“It has been an amazing 24 years. I think it would be safe to say that the Park District has exceeded even our wildest imaginations,” said Carpenter.

According to officials at the park district, Carpenter has earned the gratitude of residents throughout the county for what he set out to do and accomplished.

The public is invited to honor Carpenter’s dedication and service to the Crawford Park District on Jan. 26 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Lowe-Volk Nature Center.

Lowe-Volk Park is located three miles north of US Route 30.

For more information, contact the Crawford Park District office at 419-683-9000 or visit the district’s website at or Facebook page.