It’s a beautiful day to get away from the computer and take a long walk. Like showgirls, the area trees are standouts with their fall wardrobe of colors. The air is just the right temperature. And the perfect spot to take it all in is the Katy Trail. Not only is it spectacular, it’s the focus of a completion.
The Friends of the Katy Trail not only achieved the Campaign to Complete the Katy Trail’s $8M goal, they surpassed it, hitting $8.4M to provide two uninterrupted, fully separate paths (one for pedestrians and the other for cyclists and mixed use), running the entire 3.5-mile length of the Trail.
Scheduled for completion this month are:
- The new 1-mile soft surface path south of Knox Street and Blackburn Street;
- The resurfacing of the existing 2.5-mile soft surface from Lyte Street to Airline Drive;
- A new staircase entrance at the southwest corner of Fitzhugh Street and the Trail; and
- One mile of new landscaping along the new stretch of soft surface.
Joining the 180 donors who made it possible was the Snyder Foundation that provided a $1M gift. This philanthropy wasn’t Bobbi Snyder’s and her late husband Dick Snyder’s first gesture of support for the Trail. Back in 2009, the couple celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary by funding the Snyder’s Union at the Trail.
According to their daughter/Snyder Foundation President Stacey Snyder, “We are proud to join the Katy Trail’s capital campaign. We believe these improvements to the Trail are essential to the well-being of Dallas, now and in the future, as the city continues to grow and needs green spaces.”
Katy Trail Board Chair Charlie Shufeldt said, “We are so grateful to the Snyders for this game-changing gift to finish our campaign. Their generosity allows us to complete all the important campaign projects, most notably the final stage of widening the bridges at Fitzhugh and Lemmon.”
The widening of the Lemmon Avenue East and Fitzhugh Avenue bridges is to accommodate soft-surface construction and is projected to be completed in early 2021.
Joining the Snyders in support of the campaign, other large donors included Lyda Hill Philanthropies ($2.5M), the City of Dallas, Friends of the Katy Trail, Lindsay and Blake Shipp and Laurie Sands Harrison, Katy Trail Ice House, Lydia and Bill Addy, the Hillcrest Foundation, Margot Perot and family, Pollock Foundation and Amanda and Charlie Shufeldt.
Charlie added, “I would like to thank Robin Baldock, our executive director, for her stewardship of this construction project, which has progressed very smoothly. Thank you also to the Trail’s major gifts director, Ann Whitley Wood, who led the completion of the capital campaign, and the campaign committee members, who diligently worked for over two years toward this goal: Bonner Allen, Sam Dalton, Rob Little, Bina Patel, Preston Paine, Mark Schachter, Blake Shipp, Ruthie Shor and Sophie Levy Zuckerman.”
BTW, there are still all types of opportunities available to raise additional funding for ongoing maintenance of the Katy Trail.
* Graphic courtesy of Friends of the Katy Trail
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