Skip to content

Trail Alliance seek funds for co-ordinator

You too can be a trailblazer – and you don’t even have to go outside.
71289sicamousEVNtrailsphoto0417col
Zoey the dog leads owner Blair Randall with son Hans Randall

You too can be a trailblazer – and you don’t even have to go outside.

The Shuswap Trail Alliance is launching a fundraiser in order to build and maintain trails – metre by metre.

The February Trail Party raised $38,000 and the alliance is hoping to just about double the fundraising total to $75,000.

Not only would the money go to the 2015 trail projects, it would allow the Trail Alliance to hire a stewardship co-ordinator.

“There are many opportunities with schools, companies and other stakeholders, who are taking care of the trails to do more building and maintenance,” says Trail Alliance board chair Winston Pain. “If we had someone to provide direct support to all the stewardship work going on, we could engage the region on a more focused basis.”

Executive director Phil McIntyre-Paul notes that last year, 513 volunteers worked on 54 trail events and 3/5 were young people.

Since 2006, the Trail Alliance has completed 170 Greenway Trail projects, 11 signature trail systems, over 90 regional trails and just over 95 kilometres of new trail.

“Even if you value it at $18 a metre the asset value is over $1.7 million in amenities,” McIntyre Paul says

“Corporately, RBC called us last year and asked us to organize an opportunity and eight staff members worked to build a reroute on a section of trail and reinforced a bridge to handle equestrian traffic on a multi-use trail in South Canoe,” says Pain. “The real focus was to decrease erosion and increase ecological management and safety. They did that and donated $1,000.”

While no offer to help is turned down, they often have McIntyre-Paul and the board scrambling to find who’s available to monitor and supervise the project.

“If we had a stewardship co-ordinator, we could look for other opportunities, follow them through and increase the number of community volunteers,” Pain says. “This is a huge component of how we can get things done… from young to old, corporate to service groups and users, the team building side of it is powerful.”

McIntyre-Paul says in 2014, 53 per cent of funding came from 38 partners such as CSRD Parks, City of Salmon Arm, Enderby, BC Parks, Community Foundation and Shuswap Tourism.

“Ten per cent of the resources came from fundraising and 37 per cent came from in-kind and volunteer steward contributions,” he says. “We tracked it really closely and a conservative estimate of the value towards those projects is $157,000.”

Pain and McIntyre Paul are hoping to raise $30,000 by the end of May.

“If we know we have the money coming, we can go ahead and hire a person and not miss the year,” Pain says.

McIntyre points out the Shuswap Trail Guide, in its sixth printing has become the number-one piece of tourist information, something that would not have happened without the many enthusiastic and supportive partners and volunteers.

“That’s always been a key part; a trail is only as good as people know about it,” he says. “By the end of the year, we’ll be able to say collectively that we have leveraged about a $4 million investment in combined dollars and in-kind contributions to build, maintain and promote trails.”

Drop off donations for the Shuswap Trail Alliance’s Love Your Trails fundraiser at Eagle Valley IDA Pharmacy or Skookum Cycle and Ski in Salmon Arm. The Shuswap Trail Alliance is a charitable organization and can issue tax receipts for donations over $20.