Sixth graders at the Dingman-Delaware Middle School in Dingmans Ferry, PA, will take part in a unique environmental program this school year thanks to a special fund at Greater Pike Community Foundation. Pennsylvania Trout in the Classroom, a program that teaches about science and conservation as students raise their own trout right in their school rooms, is enabled through the Richard L. Snyder Chair of Conservation Studies Fund at Greater Pike.

The fund came into being in 2021, when Milford attorney John “Duke” Schneider was looking for a way to honor his longtime friend and client Richard Snyder, who had died in 2014. An avid conservationist and philanthropist, Dick Snyder had donated riverfront property behind Delaware Valley High School to the DV School District, greatly expanding the school’s footprint and its ability to maximize utilization of its campus. “The property Dick donated consists of two parcels totaling over 150 acres, with substantial on-grade access to the Delaware River,” said Mr. Schneider.

Duke Schneider decided to build on those beginnings by launching a fund at Greater Pike to provide a yearly stipend to the school district for environmental education.

“Each year we are seeing new groups of students access something they wouldn’t have encountered otherwise, thanks to this fund,” said Jayson Pope, assistant superintendent of schools, who oversees the program for the district. Mr. Pope is also a board member at Greater Pike. “The fund provides exposure and opportunities for these kids. This year’s Trout in the Classroom, for example, offers valuable educational experiences that these sixth graders wouldn’t have otherwise.”

The Richard L. Snyder Chair of Conservation Studies Fund has supported a variety of initiatives in its few short years of existence. The first project was to construct a nature trail connecting the back of the high school campus to the river access point behind Milford Landing. “May Brothers Landscaping cleared the trail and laid down crushed stone,” Mr. Pope said. “It’s easily walkable and in fact, DV’s cross-country runners use it.”

In addition, teachers in environmental science use the trail for riverside classes, while student members of the extracurricular Environmental Club make use of the trail and river access to take samples, research species and otherwise study the local ecology.

Campers have also enjoyed the trail. In 2025, elementary and middle-school children taking part in the DV-ACE summer camp, sponsored by Delaware Valley Adult and Community Education, used the campus and the trail in an adventure devised by the Pocono Environmental Education Center. “PEEC built a whole curriculum for us, with a new program every week,” said Mr. Pope. “The kids were down on that trail for eight weeks.”

This year’s funding is going toward the Trout in the Classroom program sponsored by the Pennsylvania Council of Trout Unlimited and the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. It will be integrated into the sixth-grade curriculum, Mr. Pope said, as “an interdisciplinary environmental education program” studying watershed conservation and cold-water ecosystems, and offering recreational opportunities too. Students will explore topics including trout life cycles, aquatic adaptations and water resource conservation. At the end of the school year, the kids will release the trout they have raised into a “Stocked Trout Waterway,” a state-approved stream near the school or within a nearby watershed.

“Dick Snyder not only left us organizations he was instrumental in founding, like the Milford Enhancement Committee and Greater Pike Community Foundation, but he also bequeathed a substantial fund at Greater Pike that benefits the entire community,” Mr. Schneider said. “He was a charitable role model for us all.”

To help ensure the continued expansion of these educational programs, donations to the Richard L. Snyder Chair of Conservation Studies Fund, or any other fund administered by Greater Pike, can be made at www.greaterpike.org/funds. Scroll down to the fund name for the link.

Greater Pike offers individuals, families, and local businesses an opportunity to provide a permanent and personal way to give back to the community. For more information about opening a fund or scholarship, or contributing to an existing fund, contact Rick Little, Executive Director, at (570) 832-4686, ricklittle@greaterpike.org, or visit www.greaterpike.org,www.facebook.com/greaterpike, or www.instagram.com/greaterpikecf.