Greenbelt friends and supporters, I’m thrilled to share a few words with you about our remarkable community asset. We have so much underway – Tour de Belt coming up soon, work heading toward wrap-up on the Paxtang Parkway, development work in progress as we Buckle the Belt in south Harrisburg, renewed contacts with you through this newsletter and stepped-up social media, and more!
The Greenbelt exists, delights, and grows based on significant partnership effort and strong community support. Many of you know of the existence and mission of the Capital Area Greenbelt Association, but few are fully aware of our unique role.
We do not own or directly control any part of the Greenbelt – most of it is part of the City’s recreation system, some is part of our neighbors (including Swatara Twp, Penbrook, Paxtang, and Susquehanna Twp), and small pieces are private or PennDOT lands. But in all cases, we have a strong partnership and working relationship with each of these entities – and in appearances before their boards in recent months we receive expressions of deep gratitude for what we’re all about on the communities’ behalf.
We extend our thanks to them as well – each gives us good leeway and solid insight on projects and needs, and more particularly provides support and sponsorship for grants applications, project engineering, safety, and event support. In this respect we also express gratitude to related organizations and individuals that touch the trail – CRW (Capital Region Water), HACC, the Farm Show, Dauphin County, the Harrisburg legislative delegation – who give us great support and interaction.
Last we thank all our volunteers, of every stripe, including the hands-on folks who maintain the trail on a regular basis, those who turn out for specific projects or clean-up events, and corporations who sponsor trail section maintenance or who send out teams to give us a hand. There’s also the less visible volunteers those who do administrative tasks, design work, event coordination, grant writing, project management, and liaison work.
The Greenbelt is well over a hundred years along as a community treasure. Whether you’re familiar with just that small piece where you walk the dog, whether you show up for the views or exercise, whether you use the trail to get to work or events, we appreciate your active use, your feedback, and your support.
