The January 30, 2018 Albany Democrat-Herald has a great article by Jennifer Moody about Build Lebanon Trails.  Similarly, in December Lebanon Local had a write-up on BLT and our December historic walk. We think both journalists did a wonderful job of representing our nonprofit organization and our goals to improve our community. Thanks for the great press!

This year we’re working particularly hard to reach out to our community, both the folks who already use the trails and those who don’t know much about them.

As mentioned in the article, we have monthly events, and we’re particularly excited about our next two:

• Like to garden, or just break a sweat? At our trail work day on Saturday, February 10, you can help spread mulch around trees we’ve planted at Marks Slough. We water our little protegés for at least the first couple summers after we plant them, and the mulch really helps them keep their water in the heat.
• On March 10 is our Cheadle Lake Paddle and March of the Munchkins event — a twofer! Paddle Cheadle Lake with us with your own nonmotorized watercraft, or rent one from Peak Sports, who’ll bring them to the event. Or bring your munchkins to a walk, where the 2018 Lebanon Strawberry Princesses will hand out awards for the best costumes! Even if you don’t paddle or have your own munchkin, come and join the fun!

We think our efforts to connect with the community are paying off, and here’s why:

• As reported in the article, we had 42 people and a few lucky dogs turn out at our January event, the West River Trail Walk. OK so it was a beautiful sunny day, that helped.
• Our BLT Photo Contest last fall got entries from 35 people, and the prize winners plus other photos from the contest entrants are now featured at the top of many of our website pages. (Click around on the menu, you’ll see them.) We love using these photos from the community!
• Visitors to our website have doubled in the past year.
• We added 50 people to our news subscription list this past year, and we now have over 500 subscribers who will be getting this news delivered right to their email inbox. (Aww, go ahead and sign up!)

And we have plans for more:

• We’ve got our usual monthly events this year, and a couple of special ones, including a bicycle tour of Lebanon in July and a doggie walk called “Paws on the Pavement” in August.
• We’ve been working on a project to place navigational signs at the trailheads and choice points for our major trails around the city. We approached the Oregon State University FLUX program, and student graphic designers Genna Mettler and Lexie Rietze took on the project of designing the signs for us. We’re thrilled with the results, and the designs have been approved by the City of Lebanon and the Lebanon Arts Commission. Once we finish planning and get them printed, the signs will start appearing!
• Our great ideas are exceeding our personpower to execute them, so we’re in the planning stage to develop an elite program of trained volunteers who can use their skills and interests to benefit BLT, the trails, and ultimately the community. Watch for the announcement about the program, we’d sure love your help!

This is all in addition to our one-year, three-year, and five-year plans for trail development and enhancement.

At the end of the day, whether or not you’ve heard of BLT or come to our events, we’re happy if we see you enjoying the lovely Lebanon trails, and we promise you we will keep up our work to develop and enhance Lebanon’s trail system.