(Savannah, GA) The Friends of Tide to Town (TTT), a coalition leading the development of Savannah’s Urban Trail System, is inviting the public to join them for a “Love Your Trail” clean-up day on Saturday, Feb. 17.
Those interested in volunteering should meet up at 9 a.m. at Bowles C. Ford Park, at the corner of Stiles Ave. and Cloverdale Dr. in Savannah (32°03’48.6″N 81°07’04.9″W). The two-hour cleanup will take place around the lake at Bowles C. Ford Park and the footpath between the park and Laurel Grove South Cemetery. Litter grabbers and trash bags will be provided.
“Building the trail is an ambitious project but so is the effort to keep portions of the trail that are already in use clean and beautiful, along with the parks and communities where people want to walk,” said Armand Turner, deputy director of Healthy Savannah, Racial & Ethnic Approaches to Community Health and the chair of Friends of Tide to Town. “We hope everyone will come out and help keep our trails clear of trash and full of love.”
Several previous trail cleanups have been held along completed areas of the TTT, including sections of the Truman Linear Park Trail. When finished, it will connect Daffin Park to Lake Mayer Park, creating approximately 9 miles of continuous off and on-road bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure along with 800 acres of park and recreation space, 18 neighborhoods, and two major economic centers.
Last month, about 30 members of Boy Scout Troop 1 and Pack 1 joined up with volunteers from the Friends of Tide to Town for a trail cleanup and picked up about 50 pounds of trash along Wheaton Street, near A.B. Williams Elementary School.
The City of Savannah also recently brought on a full-time project manager, Tina Brockhold, who will oversee construction for the last phase of the Truman Linear Trail between DeRenne Ave. and the Police Memorial Trail, expected to get underway later this year. She will additionally manage future phases of TTT, including a section on the west side of Savannah through the developing Canal District, and on the south side of Savannah along Middleground Road. When the 30+ mile continuous loop is completed, it will include a protected network of walking and bicycling trails connecting 30 schools, three major hospitals and 62 neighborhoods.
Over the past three years, Turner and Healthy Savannah’s executive director, Paula Kreissler, have been leading “Healthy Walks” along the TTT and other trails around Savannah and Chatham County. The grassroots initiative started out as a pandemic solution for people to get out and explore Savannah area trails and walkways and has remained popular with walkers seeking a low-impact exercise routine. The duo is planning a fourth-anniversary celebration in March with special guests joining several of the walks.
The TTT is supported by a network of local partners that include the YMCA of Coastal Georgia and Healthy Savannah as administrators of the Racial & Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) grant funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Major funding sources include $4M ARPA, $1M SPLOST VII, $10M hotel/motel tax and a proposed $4M in the city of Savannah’s 2024 budget. For more details please visit Tide To Town at https://tidetotown.org/
ABOUT THE YMCA OF COASTAL GEORGIA/HEALTHY SAVANNAH GRANT FOR RACIAL AND ETHNIC APPROACHES TO COMMUNITY HEALTH: In September 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded a second grant called Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) to Healthy Savannah and the YMCA of Coastal Georgia. $5.1 million in funding is being deployed over a five-year period to be utilized in an “upstream” approach to foster sustainable health equity among racial and ethnic minority populations in low-wealth neighborhoods in areas of nutrition, physical activity and the reduction of chronic diseases. The renewed funding enables work to continue which began under the initial, five-year, $3.4 million REACH grant awarded in 2018, and a supplemental grant awarded in 2021 to increase awareness and acceptance of COVID-19 and flu adult immunizations. Working with more than 200 community partners and organizations, the Savannah/Chatham County project team’s specific goals in implementing the new five-year grant include fostering physical activity by creating greater access to safe places to walk, run, bike and play; elevating the health and wellness of the community through policy, systems, and environmental change; and providing education and awareness regarding adult immunizations, especially as they relate to health disparities in chronic conditions of hypertension, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and obesity. The administrators will also continue to foster stronger connections between people and the healthcare providers who serve them by supporting awareness and use of the HERO Help Me database. In July 2022, Healthy Savannah received the CDC’s 2022 REACH Lark Galloway-Gilliam Award for Advancing Health Equity Challenge. The award recognizes extraordinary individuals and entities whose work has contributed to advancing health equity.
healthysavannah.org ymcaofcoastalga.org.
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