Remember the Greenway During Next Week’s Give Local Campaign.
Blessed with a Generous Match!
We Just Received a $25,000 Grant will Match all Give Local Contributions NEXT WEEK to Support the Extension to Bantam
Dear Friend,
Very exciting times these days at the Greenway! We hope to share more and more news with you over the next week!
But first, a reminder to all of our supporters that the GiveLocal 36 hour campaign will begin next week – It starts at 7am on Tuesday, April 25 and runs until 7pm on Wednesday, April 26! Don’t miss it – you can access our page directly HERE to make contributions.
Spread the Word! GiveLocal is a wonderful 36 hour event for so many non-profits. Support the Greenway and find other organizations.
And to make things even better, this year we will match all contributions up to $25,000! This was made possibly by an anonymous donation made earlier this week to support our Next Bridge to Everywhere – Crossing the Bantam River. Therefore, if there was ever a time to provide financial support to the Greenway, this is it – Help us raise $50,000!
For some perspective, we have already begun work on the next ambitious 1.9 mile extension of the Greenway known as Phase 4 – The Trail to Bantam. It will start at the current end of the Greenway at North Shore Road and will travel south, cross the Bantam River, cross High Bridge Road, cross Bantam Lake Road and terminate at Stoddard Road near the Litchfield Sewer Department. Similar to most Greenway trail improvements, this extension will also run along the former Shepaug Railroad bed on land owned by Eversource Energy, but will also include a new pedestrian bridge crossing the Bantam River. We’ve done extensive pre-planning and hope to focus our efforts this summer on design work and permitting. Several grant proposals to CT DEEP and various foundations have also been submitted earlier this year to help fund the anticipated substantial construction cost. Not surprisingly, most of the grants we are pursuing are matching grants, therefore we anticipate we will need to raise well over $100,000 to fund our share of the project.
Therefore, our focus this year at Give Local is to help fund Phase 4- the Trail to Bantam! Now we can double every dollar you contribute up to $25,000 – if there was ever a time to be generous, this is it!
DON’T FORGET – NEXT TUES/WED – DOUBLE YOUR GIFT!
While we are SO excited to see the Russell Street Extension get underway, we are even more excited to see Phase 4 get funded given how much it will offer. It will nearly double the length of the greenway and connect the Bantam town center with Litchfield, will provide safe pedestrian access from both school districts, allow neighbors to walk or bike safely to Bantam for dinner or ice cream. We envision the entire extension will be ADA accessible and envision additional trail head parking along the path. This project is ambitious and we look forward to sharing more details about it soon.
Right now we are focused on Give Local NEXT WEEK – DON’T FORGET
