Community spotlight: Traci Buckner
Lindsay Smith, marketing and public relations manager
Before setting off to promote a safe space for children and families to learn through play together as executive director of Akron’s first children’s museum, Traci Buckner spent the bulk of her career in education. Once a middle school teacher, Buckner excelled through several administration roles in the Akron Public Schools district. When she’s not at Akron Children’s Museum, Buckner and her family enjoy time spent in Summit Metro Parks.
“One park experience that is most memorable is when me and my husband, Tobin, took our two sons, Jackson and Justice, to a night out at F.A. Seiberling Nature Realm to learn from a naturalist, catch lightning bugs and make s’mores around a campfire. This is something we still enjoy doing at our home around the fire pit now that my sons are older,” Buckner recalled.
We are grateful to Buckner for her leadership in our community, especially through an unusually challenging year. Like many people, she and her family found the parks to be a refuge during the early days of the pandemic. “One evening we took a drive (and) ended up at Sand Run Metro Park on a trail we had never walked before. There, we bumped into our neighbors who live a couple of houses over and who we hadn’t been able to see because everyone was confined to their homes,” Buckner says. “We were so surprised and happy to see each other along the trail and couldn’t believe that of all of the Metro Parks to choose from we would end up at the same trail at the same time for the same purpose: a much-needed refuge to find peace in our community’s beautiful parks.”
We’ll leave you with her pro tip for cinema lovers: “If you love Star Wars, you’ll feel as if you have just stepped into one of their movie scenes when hiking Silver Creek Metro Park. A portion of (Pheasant Run Trail) has a line of trees that are breathtaking.”
For more great stories like this, check out Green Islands Magazine, a bi-monthly publication from Summit Metro Parks. Summit County residents can sign up to receive the publication at home free of charge.
