A Trail (with AARP Benches) Enables People of All Ages to Walk to Town

LOCATION: Whitesburg, Kentucky
GRANTEE: Appalshop, Inc.

The AARP Community Challenge grant funded four benches (manufactured by a local metalworks shop) and a stretch of blacktopping along the newly improved Tanglewood Trail, a three mile path that goes through the city's downtown. The trail provides residents with a lighted walkway that has even, at-grade pavement. “By connecting all of our different businesses together, it connects one end of town to the other,” explains Mayor Tiffany Craft. “A lot of people who do not drive have access now.” Notes Valerie Ison Horn, director of the Cowan Community Action Group: “It’s another way of tying a healthy community together with fresh foods and physical activity.” Matching funds raised by local businesses and individual donors surpassed the funds given by the AARP Community Challenge grant and will be put toward expanding the trail to the top of Pine Mountain, where it will join the 1,800 mile Great Eastern Trail.

The AARP Community Challenge funds "quick-action" projects that build momentum for local change to improve livability for people of all ages.

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