On behalf of the Bike-Walk Committee, the Council on Aging and the Planning/Conservation Department, thank you to everyone who participated in the Go4Life Stroll event held on Sunday, September 16th at the new River-To-Range Loop Trail off Ferry Street.
We had a wonderful turnout with 80 members of the public enjoying this leisurely outing and thanks to their very thoughtful generosity, we collected 91 pounds of food and $9.00 in cash donations for the Neighbors Helping Neighbors Food Pantry. Awesome!
Our strollers are not the only ones we must thank. Our community partners made this a very successful outing for all involved: Big Y for its donation of 210 bottles of water, a very welcome refreshment during the warm afternoon; the Police Department for their patrol to ensure a safe start; the High School Culinary Program for their delicious cookies and granola bars, making for a sweet ending; our town’s DPW staff who prevailed with the challenges of weather and other issues in mowing the trail edges and parking lot; and Mount Holyoke College for its kindness and kinship in allowing us to use their circular driveway for much-needed overflow parking. Our two volunteer interpreters, Leo Labonte (river historian) and Dennis Swartwout (flora expert) were “icing on the cake” by providing interesting info to the strollers who stopped at their leisure to chat and learn.
We also greatly appreciate the many folks in town who are always willing to help spread the word about BWC trek events via their own distribution methods.
What a cohesive group of people we really are in South Hadley!
Lastly, a special shout-out to the Council on Aging’s Social Strollers, the twice-weekly walking group which is now up to a solid mile in their program, to Heidi Ragno’s High School AP Biology Class who recently planted native species along part of the trail, and to Bill Bacis, Conservation Commissioner who raked the trail and weeded around the planted red maples. Kudos to all!
The best part of the Stroll? As we’d hoped for, it really did turn out to be an “all-ages, all-mobility, family-fun walk” for the participants who traversed the one-mile loop trail. We even had 4 dogs join in on the fun with their owners.
Thank you, everyone!