Berkeley County School District

Hannah, a rising second grader at Moncks Corner Elementary, is pretty chipper after making the lengthy trip from Moncks Corner to Sullivan’s Island to start pulling these pesky plants around Fort Moultrie, a notable historic structure built on the beach in the 1700s to protect Charleston.

She is joined by her mom and one of her older brothers, and has dressed for the occasion by sporting some stylish sequined shorts and a green t-shirt that reads “Future Park Ranger.”

At only 6 years old (she turns 7 on July 29), this bubbly blonde is the fort’s youngest volunteer – and she has stolen the hearts of National Park Service (NPS) rangers, like Summer Elcock, who is one of the interpretive rangers at the fort.

“We depend on our volunteers,” Elcock said, explaining that the fort’s volunteers do it all: weeding, sweeping, cleaning, assisting with crowd control and just overall protecting the historic structures themselves. A lot of the volunteers also work at Fort Sumter. “We call them our volunteer historians – because they really are – and they just help continue creating this passion for the parks.”

When the Murray family meets up with Elcock on Monday morning inside Fort Moultrie’s Visitor Center, she is armed with trash bags and rubber gloves and tells the group the day’s game plan of yanking out some weeds growing outside the Powder Magazine room within the fort.

They are smiling through the sweat as they get to work, and pass the time by chatting.

Hannah loves Fort Moultrie; she can still remember her first time visiting the fort.

“I felt excited and I felt happy, and I just fell in love with parks,” she said. When she joined the Cub Scouts last year, Hannah hit the ground running to clock in volunteer hours at Fort Moultrie and earn her community service badge.

That hard work has paid off: she has seven Junior Ranger badges, and has earned the NPS Scout Ranger Award. She was named the 2022 Cub Scout of the Year for the tri-county for her efforts in recruiting.

On top of all of that, the NPS nominated Hannah for the Southeast Region Hartzog Impact Award for Youth/Young Adults last spring. The award recognizes a single individual who has made a meaningful impact for their park or program.

In June, she found out she won the award – and she even has a shot at being recognized at the national level.

“I feel happy and very excited because other people can come out and see how much we have done to help the parks,” Hannah said.

The award is named after George B. Hartzog, Jr., who served as the director of the National Park Service and created the Volunteers-In-Parks (VIP) program in 1970, and his wife, Helen. When he retired in 1970, he and his wife, Helen, established a fund to support the program and honor its volunteers. The award is given in different categories.

Earning the award at Hannah’s age is a pretty big deal; since reading about the background of the award, the Murrays have learned that it usually goes to teenagers who are working on extensive Eagle Scout projects and community service projects.

However, park rangers rave about Hannah – and will quickly say she has definitely earned this award.

“Hannah brings a light to Fort Moultrie,” Elcock said. “She makes our day – she really does.”

Hannah mostly volunteered on the weekends, but has been taking some additional time to visit the fort this summer. One of the biggest activities she does is pull the weeds, but she helps in other ways too: her family comes to the park often to participate in events like National Public Lands Day and Park Day. Hannah has even become an ambassador of the fort by speaking to peers – such as classmates and fellow Cub Scouts – to encourage them to come check out the fort themselves.

To Hannah, working to protect Fort Moultrie is important is multiple ways: it is not just about conserving the fort and keeping it clean for visitors, it is about honoring the soldiers – “because they protected our state and our country.” The original fort dates all the way to the American Revolution, when “Fort Sullivan” fought off a fleet of attacking Royal Navy ships. The fort was still under construction and built out of palmetto logs that were able to absorb cannonball fire. Col. William Moultrie led his 400 troops in a day-long battle that warded off the ships, and the fort has since been known as Fort Moultrie.

When she visits the fort, Hannah likes to take a quiet moment to thank those who have defended her state and her country.

“I like to say ‘thank you’ and a prayer,” she said.

Hannah comes from active Scout family. She is the daughter of Kevin and Elizabeth Murray – Elizabeth is a substitute teacher in Berkeley County School District who is also Hannah’s Scout leader. Hannah’s two older brothers, William and Nathaniel, also grew up with the Scouts – and they regularly join Hannah in volunteering at the fort.

Her mom said seeing the impact her daughter has made is overwhelming.

“It’s definitely interesting and it makes me feel very proud as a mom…to see your kids want to go out and do something on their own,” Elizabeth said.

Hannah said her volunteer work ties directly into the Scouts’ mission to “do a good turn daily and always be kind,” and that she believes she is making a positive difference “by helping my ranger friends in cleaning up, and honoring the soldiers.”

That green “Future Park Ranger” t-shirt Hannah wears is no joke; she really does want to be a park ranger when she grows up. She wants to work somewhere in South Carolina (she cannot live without shrimp ‘n’ grits).

She is already pretty good at it; while touring Fort Moultrie, Hannah loves to show all the different aspects of the park, like the cannons and the tunnels. She will happily throw out every little bit of knowledge she has learned from her time at Fort Moultrie (she literally knows everything about it).

Recipients of the national award for each Hartzog category will be announced in late August, according to the NPS website. In the meantime, Hannah plans to continue her volunteer service and visit the parks.

Outside of volunteering, Hannah is a truly fun-loving girl. If one were to ask her favorite color, she would list the entire rainbow (and beyond), but has it narrowed down to pink and purple. Her favorite animals are unicorns, Pegasus and horses – she listed them in that order.

She is planning a Barbie-themed birthday party in a couple of weeks, but her actual birthday will be spent with her beloved park rangers and fellow volunteers at Charles Pinckney National Historic Site.

At Moncks Corner Elementary, her favorite subject is P.E., taught by the “very funny” Michael Brennan. She adores her assistant principal, the “amazing” Lisa Caldwell, as well as Principal Mike Shaw, who knows her as “Hannah Banana” and gets a kick out of a custom Marshall University shirt Hannah occasionally wears with the words “Mr. Shaw’s Favorite School” written on the back (Shaw is actually a fan of Marshall’s rival school, West Virginia University).

“She is a child that presents a pleasant, happy attitude that is contagious the second she steps foot on the sidewalk each morning,” Shaw said. “She is a joyful student that will do anything for her peers as well as the adults in the building. Hannah is a student that takes school seriously and never has a bad day.”