Times Observer photos by Josh Cotton A commemorative stone was placed last year in memory of the Civilian Conservation Corps service of Edwin Zevotek - two of his children, Mark Zevotek and Donna McDonald attended - as part of the annual CCC Statue Dedication Reunion. This year’s reunion will be held Friday at the WCVB starting at 10 a.m.

Very few of the men who served in the Civilian Conservation Corps are still alive.

The CCC, which was active from 1933 to 1942, was a program of President Franklin D. Roosevelt intended to provide unskilled conservation related jobs to young men and help families struggling to find work in the Great Depression.

Those men and their work will be commemorated Friday at the 16th annual CCC Statue Dedication Reunion to be held at 10 a.m. at the Warren County Visitors Bureau.

While even the youngest veterans of the CCC would be nearly 100, the effects of their work are still very much seen today.

According to the Library of Congress, three million young men served in the CCC and “virtually changed the landscape of the United States through conservation projects on millions of acres of lands, and through the expansion and development of the nation’s state and national parks and forests.”

The most visible vestiges of that work today include the three billion trees planted and 711 state parks created.

The CCC turned 90 this year – it was signed into law as part of the Emergency Work Conservation Act in March 1933.

The Civilian Conservation Corps statue at the Warren County Visitors Bureau was dedicated 15 years ago in August 2007.

Each year since, a reunion and ceremony have been held at the statue.

As the years have passed, the numbers have dwindled.

But even though there are no longer any CCC Boys still in attendance, the commemoration of the CCC’s efforts — many of which live on today — continues.

The last CCC veteran to attend was Leo Beane, who came in 2016. A tree planter at a Forest County camp who lived much of his life in Yellowhammer, Beane died in 2017 at the age of 96.

ANF-1 Duhring was the second CCC camp of about 4,500 in the nation. It was the first of 16 CCC camps on the Allegheny National Forest, and the first in Pennsylvania. While they weren’t military camps, they resembled such camps to a degree from the structure, discipline and work ethic needed.

“The three million men, who served in the CCC, easily transitioned into military life,” according to the National World War II Museum. “They were disciplined, trained in team work, and used to hard work. They were ready to join American forces in the fight against tyranny.”