The Pine Barrens Festival is all about celebrating the families and the towns in the Pine Barrens’ surrounding area.
As part of that celebration, each year awards are given to individuals or groups that has made a meaningful contribution to the Pine Barrens overall and each individual town at the Pine Barrens Festival.
As each festival night spotlights a different town, an individual or group from that town is identified for outstanding volunteer service and presented with the Pine Barrens Festival Service Award. This year in Tabernacle, Noble McNaughton was chosen for the Pine Barrens Festival Service Award. He was acknowledged for his numerous years of service.
“It was a great honor to be recognized for the work that you’ve done,” McNaughton said.
McNaughton’s career in volunteering started with the Tabernacle Athletic Association, coaching when his oldest daughter was about 7, and continuing to coach for many years after. He eventually became president.
Throughout the years, he has continued to put in some hard work and dedication with the Tabernacle and Burlington County community, including being a township committeeman and mayor; a member of the YMCA Camp Ockanickon Building and Grounds Committee; a member of Burlington County Planning Board; a trustee for Rowan College at Burlington County, formerly called Burlington County College; and is currently the chairman of the Tabernacle Land Development Board.
As the owner of Indian Mills Nursery, he has also served on several farm organizations including New Jersey Farm Bureau Board of Directors, New Jersey State Board of Agriculture, as president of the New Jersey Agricultural Society and as a member of Agricultural Advisory Committee of the Pinelands Commission.
McNaughton feels volunteering is really rewarding, naming things such as watching the kids he coached grow and prosper and helping residents with land use variances. He feels giving back is really enjoyable and hopes those who can volunteer do so.
“(Volunteering) really makes you feel good. It just helps the community, trying to make it a better place,” McNaughton said.
On a larger scale, an overall Pine Barrens award is presented to an individual or group that has made a meaningful contribution to the culture, history and/or ecology of the Pine Barrens. This year, two honorees were chosen. Tabernacle’s Richard Smithson and Moore’s Meadow Blueberry and Cranberry Farm.
Smithson was honored for his important contribution in replanting and restoring trees in the Tabernacle Boy Scout Camp.
Born and raised in New Jersey, Smithson graduated high school and finished a two-year technical college, and then enlisted in the Air Force. For a good bit of his 24-year Air Force career, he was stationed at McGuire Air Force Base; he also had a one-year tour in Thailand and four years in California.
While stationed at McGuire, he signed up as a leader with Boy Scout Troop 34 on Ft. Dix when his oldest son joined the troop. He was the Scoutmaster for Troop 34 for many years, continuing long after his sons were too old to be Scouts.
Upon retiring from the Air Force, he was hired by the then Burlington County Council, Boy Scouts of America as the facility coordinator for its newly acquired and renovated property, the Pine Tree Education and Environmental Center in Tabernacle, and he and his family moved in. Since then, about 23 years ago, he has been taking care of Pine Tree.
He is also a member of the New Jersey Forest Fire Service helping locally when needed. Smithson and his wife are active members of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Whiting and both volunteer with Caregiver Volunteers of Central Jersey, providing assistance with rides to the doctor or grocery shopping for the elderly and shut-ins. Smithson has also helped with the Olson Middle School eighth grade dinner dance for several years.
Smithson could not be reached for comment.
