Greenways annual meeting counts many accomplishments

It was a celebration of collaboration when Fox Cities Greenways members gathered virtually Thursday, Jan. 28, for the nonprofit trail advocacy group’s annual meeting.

Trails Summit, February 2020

Working with East Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission and the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region, outgoing Board President Holly Femal made this list of accomplishments possible:

• Hosting the Fox Cities Trail Summit in February, which brought together representatives of 16 municipalities and five supporting agencies to share and coordinate their plans for building bicycle and pedestrian trails.
• Creating a report on the conclusions of the summit, available online.
• Hosting a follow-up session last October when Duluth-based video producer, photographer and author Dudley Edmundson spoke about why people of color are less likely to take part in outdoor activities and how to start to overcome a history of slavery, share cropping, segregation even in national parks and fear caused by racism.
• Producing a video using drone technology that describes and shows what’s planned for the Loop the Locks trail that will link Kimberly, Little Chute, Kaukauna and Appleton, including the David and Rita Nelson Family Heritage Crossing over the Fox River to link the trail systems of Little Chute and Kaukauna and opening in June.

All those projects were supported by grants from the Community Foundation.

Photographer Jim Ruzicka captured an osprey capturing a fish, which netted Jim “The People’s Choice Award.”

Femal also announced that, for his involvement in these projects and other supporting work, the Fox Cities Greenways Inc. 2020 Community Partner Award recipient is David Horst, environmental grant manager for the Community Foundation.

She said he worked effectively behind the scenes to keep the projects moving. She credited his research showing that $19 million in trail work is planned in the Fox Cities in the next three years for getting the process going.

“Thank you for leading us to the summit,” Femal said.

Dave Horst

“This is a wonderful honor,” Horst said, “but Greenways members need to remember that this is part of my job and members of their excellent board of directors do this service to the club and community as volunteers.”

Femal, who is Kimberly’s community enrichment director, described the Greenways board as a “dream team.” She will continue on the board as secretary. Adam Breest, Little Chute’s director of Parks, Recreation and Forestry, will take over as president, with Dave Martin of Wheel and Sprocket in Appleton serving as vice president, replacing Kim Biedermann of East Central, who remains on the board. Bob Jakel, Kaukauna planning director, continues as treasurer.