Fort Wayne Trails

Community engagement volunteer coordinator: in march of 2023 Fort Wayne Trails (fwt) created a new part-time position to coordinate their volunteers. Through recruiting, training, and managing volunteers for fwt, the volunteer coordiator allows volunteers to become more engaged with the organization and allows staff to use their time more efficiently. Inclusion institute community input meeting: on march 19th fwt partnered with the inclusion institute at the leage (formerly the league for the blind and disabled) to have a community input meeting hosted by anthony Wayne services. There were approximately 70 people in attendance in-person and virtually. After a short description of fwt, participants were encouraged to provide feedback on ways that the Trails could be improved for people of differing abilities. This meeting led to some immediate changes as well as some longer-term plans. This event will now be held annually. Trek the Trails: during the summer of 2022 (until october 25, 2022) and again in the summer of 2023 (starting may 2, 2023), fwt partnered with the city of Fort Wayne to provide a series of family-friendly bicycle rides at various locations throughout the trail system. The goals of this program are to engage with the public, introduce the trail system to new users, and build affinity for the Trails with potential donors. There were 525 riders in 2022. The first ten rides of 2023 brought out 568 riders. Tread the Trails: for the second year, fwt, the city of Fort Wayne and Fort Wayne running club hosted a trek-the-trails style group run/walk/roll every other thursday. During the summer of 2022 (until october 27, 2022) and the first 5 events of 2023 (starting may 2, 2023) there were approximately 200 participants. This program allows people to experience the Trails in a family-friendly group on foot or by wheelchair. Trails celebration: formerly known as the trail'Trails's kickoff, this spring celebration allows fwt and the city of Fort Wayne to provide the public with information on upcoming projects and trail happenings. In 2023 approximately 70 people attended this event. Pufferbelly run/walk/stroll: since 2010, the pufferbelly run/walk/stroll has provided a healthy, family-friendly activity, and a chance to share the pufferbelly trail story. There were 365 participants in 2022. Of the participants, 110 were youth. There were also 18 volunteers. Trail map: beginning in 2012, fwt has provided an easy-to-read map of the trail system, showing existing Trails and current trail projects. The first trail map showed 68 miles of completed Trails. The 2023 trail maps (now available in both county-wide, and downtown Fort Wayne formats) include over 134 miles of completed Trails, illustrating the need for the annually updated publication. In 2012 fwt printed 25,000 maps. In 2023 fwt printed 50,000 maps (25,000 county maps and 25,000 downtown maps). Social media: fwt maintains active linkedin, facebook, twitter, instagram and youtube channels. Trail development and advocacy fwt does not construct or maintain Trails. Fwt helps municipalities throughout allen county prioritize and manage their trail projects. Fwt also advocates for amenities and trail connections expressed to them by the community through the community engagement activities listed above. Some of the trail projects that were constructed by fwt's municipal partners in fy2023 are: buckner park trail, phase 1: this project was completed by Fort Wayne parks and recreation. This 0.75 mile trail creates access to a wooded portion of the park that follows a stream with several scenic overlooks and ends at a new open air pavilion. Bass road trail: this project was completed by allen county highway. This 1.23 mile stretch of trail was included with a road widening project that included several traffic circles. The trail is now complete between hillegas road and hadley road. Dupont road trail: this project was completed by the city of Fort Wayne public works. This 0.31-mile stretch of trail fills a gap and created a 4.7-mile-long trail along dupont road from lima road to tonkel road. Meadowbrook trail: this project was completed by the city of new haven. This 0.5-mile long trail creates access to the new haven community center for the meadowbrook neighborhood and kady gene senior housing project. Payton county park loop: this project was completed by allen county parks department. This 0.5-mile loop trail is part of a larger park improvement that includes a new playground, improved pavilion, and new trail signage for the natural surface Trails. It will connect to the pufferbelly trail, which is still under construction. Construction has also started on the summit park project, woodburn road trail, the pufferbelly trail from lifebridge church to fitch road, and the monroeville trail, which includes a pedestrian bridge. Fwt is a key partner in several area organizations, including: active transportation coalition: fwt is an executive member of the active transportation coalition. This is a group of organizations in the greater Fort Wayne area who are all working on different aspects of active transportation. Some of the other organizations involved include the city of Fort Wayne, parkview health, purdue extension office, aarp and many others. Poka-bache coalition: fwt is a non-profit advisor for this task force of municipalities and counties focused on making the regional poka-bache trail a reality. This trail will connect pokagon state park and ouabache state park along an 81-mile off-road corridor. Four counties and 7 municipalities are involved in the coalition. Greenways foundation of Indiana: the executive director of fwt is the vice-president of this statewide trail'Trails's advocacy group. The foundation distributes funds collected from the "i support Trails" license plates to support trail groups throughout the state. Fundraising fundraisers: brewed in the Fort: fwt is mad anthony's charity partner for the brewed in the Fort craft beer festival. This popular event brings hundreds of beer fans from around the region. This is one of fwt's biggest fundraisers, providing opportunities for sponsorships, individual ticket sales, and a silent auction. 1st annual golf classic: in 2023 fwt hosted their first ever charity golf outing at brookwood golf course. This scramble format event was primarily planned and run by voluneeters. Through sponsorships, team registrations and donations, fwt netted over 9,000. Grants: in fy 2023 fwt received over 400,000 from 20 separate grants. This is an increase of over 150% over the previous year. Some of these grants were for operating expenses, while others were for a restricted purpose. Sponsorships: in fy 2023 fwt utilized a sponsorship packet that listed all of the benefits and opportunities for sponsorship during the 2023 calendar year. This resulted in 67 different businesses and organizations sponsoring fwt in some fashion. This included being a trail friendly business, sponsoring the printing of the annual map, and/or sponsoring an event. Individual donors: fwt received over 668,000 from over 550 individual donors in fy 2023. This is an increase of over 270% over the previous year. These donations varied from only a few dollars to thousands of dollars. There was also an increase in the number of trail blazers (recurring donors). By the end of fy 2023 fwt had 92 recurring donors ranging from 10 to 100 per month. Endowment: in october of 2018 fwt started an endowment fund at the community foundation of greater Fort Wayne. It was started with 20,000. By the end of fy 2023, it had grown to over 48,000. This money will be used to help maintain the existing Trails in perpetuity. Planned giving: fwt's planned giving society is called the perpetual motion club. Donors who name fwt in their wills or bequests help fwt fulfuill their mission and grow the trail system so that it can continue to be a valuable asset in the community for generations to come. As of the end of fy2023 there are 20 members of this club.