By Jeremy Brown

More than 95 attendees gathered at Station Road Bridge on the morning of May 25 for a Healthful Hike to celebrate Interpretive Park Ranger Pam Machuga’s retirement from Cuyahoga Valley National Park. 

Machuga, 57, has served the park for over 33 years.

The hike took attendees on a three-hour, seven-mile path throughout the park.  

One 15-year member of Machuga’s Healthful Hikes, Lynn Salzbrenner, said the hikes are fast paced with only two stops: one for a community conversation, another for a mindfulness moment with a deep breathing exercise. 

“She has this thing she does called community conversation,” Salzbrenner said. “She always comments about how our world is so divided, and she wants to make an impact by helping people connect, one conversation at a time, so she has transformed the group by stopping in the middle of a long hike and she says, ‘now find somebody you don’t know, and here’s the conversation starter for today.’ And you end up knowing the people.”

Throughout the years, Machuga has organized several programs and events for the parks system, including The Polar Express train ride, Read with a Ranger, collaborations with Project Rise and history-based acting programs. She also offered bi-monthly hikes and was an instructor for Franklin Covey leadership courses. From time to  time she worked for the parks department on a regional and national level, training candidates to be interpretive rangers.

For the past 12 years, Machuga has been working in community engagement, an aspect of rangering that enhances relationships between parks and communities to build a common future. After attending community meetings in Cleveland, Akron and Medina, she learned that community members' top priorities were good jobs and quality education for their kids, so she created programs that would cater to their needs.  

“So, I had an idea for a program called Read with a Ranger where, once a month, we would go into the schools to promote literacy, get kids comfortable with the outdoor world, and get them comfortable with the National Park Service,” Machuga said. “To celebrate at the end we would bring them out to ride the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Route Railroad with some donations and with some different grants that we received. It was just a lovely way to be in community.”

She worked with 59 teachers from Cleveland, Akron and Medina, and with community centers and boys and girls clubs to organize programs during the school year. During the summers, her programs gave elementary school children and their families a chance to hike, bike, fish and play.

Machuga has written several programs that tell the story of the park's historical events, such as the flood of 1913, the Underground Railroad and the circus that once came through the little town of Peninsula. Hundreds of volunteers acted in her historical programs at the Rotary, schools, garden groups and more. Sometimes they even dressed up to help with Read with a Ranger school programs. 

Miriam Pendleton of Northfield began volunteering for Machuga 15 years ago before Christmas, just in time to act as a character for the Polar Express train ride, an event that took passengers through Cuyahoga Valley National Park and visited a fictitious North Pole in Peninsula. 

“We’d read the stories, and they’d be in their PJs, and we’d sing Christmas carols,” Pendleton said. “It really was fun, and the kids enjoyed that so much, and I think the parents did too, especially when Santa Claus would come in and talk to the kids and give them their special silver bell.”

Now that Machuga has retired, she plans to give herself some time to enjoy life and see what opportunities may arise. She said much of her time in the near   future will be spent with her first grandchild who is due to be born in July. As for the long term, she’s waiting for her husband to retire in hopes that they can go on a bucket list adventure to the Tetons, the Badlands, and a bit of traveling throughout the Rocky Mountains. 

In the wake of her retirement, Machuga leaves hundreds of sad hikers, volunteers and acquaintances she’s made through her service as a park ranger.

“When she retires it’s going to be a huge loss for the park. It really brought tears to those of us volunteers who have been with her for years,”  Pendleton said. “She’s truly a gem and is going to be seriously missed, by not only the park and the people that she serves in the park, but especially us volunteers who think of her as a mentor and a role model. We are a family and we are going to miss her terribly.”