Thirty years ago I was told about a trail along the Poudre River which would someday go all the way to Fort Collins from Greeley. I thought that was a nice goal but would it happen.
Now in 2011 we have a trail that stretches from Greeley and beyond reaching out to Fort Collins just outside of Windsor. I am very impressed at the hard work from the board, volunteers, donors, land owners, city of Greeley, Windsor, Fort Collins and the state of Colorado for working as a community to create this dream into reality.
I use the trail for transportation, exercise, teaching classes, photographic experiences and general meditation.
The community(s) have benefited so much from the Poudre Trail that can be measured in a term of "Quality of Life".
Franklin Middle School has started a yearly volunteer program and we have been doing this now for five years. In the past our students have had the opportunity to go out to the Poudre Trail and help clean. The students not only picked up trash, pulled weeds, but also help paint grafitti areas (ie. bridges etc.) In fact the students enjoyed working out there and loved the chance to do something worthwhile for their community. We had the sherriff's posse there to monitor, the city helped by providing bags and other material and other city officials came by to see the great work our students did in the two hours they had to work. In fact our students collected over three tons of trash along the trail. We have tried to make this a yearly event, but due to budget cuts within the city and changes we have not had the support we would have liked. We hope that we as a school can do this again. Our school continues to volunteer yearly around the community and we now have gotten involved with the Poudre Trail Learning Center which is along the Poudre Trail and help clean that area. The Poudre Trail is a great learning resource and our students have never enjoyed themselves as much as they did that day. Thank you.