And what to my wondering eyes should appear?

I am Executive Director (unpaid as most of my jobs are) of West Virginia Rails-to-Trails Council and for the last several years I have been trying to find a tail-trail group to take over WVRTC but no one was interested. Last year out of the blue a local aircraft company sent WVRTC a donation of $1500. I provided that money to the No rth Be nd Rail-Tra il Foundation for drainage at one of their tunnels.
As you all know I have been on the Road Again for 11 days since I headed out for the airport. Last night in sorting through the mail there is an envelope addressed to the West Virginia Rails-to-Trails Council. That company has made another donation to WVRTC - this year it is $4000.00! (there IS a decimal point there darn it!) What a gem to come home to. This time 3 trails will benefit - all in the area served by the employees of that company. Woohoo and Merry Christmas!! It will be used for drainage and trail repair issues on the 3 trails.

CONGRATULATIONS!!! That's really wonderful. There are zero rails in my county. Not a soul turned up at the public meeting in the 1980's when the railroad said they wanted to leave our county, so they left. Now everybody wants them back and they say no way jose (not enough business here for them).
It's so rare to get that kind of money dropped into your lap. Congrats again!

sorry don't really understand what a rail trail is = but am super happy a company is supporting local stuff! we are lucky here as the bus company who services our area donates £1000 ($2000) every year for supporting Christmas lights and activities!

wow that is wonderful! is it appropriate to post big thanks on the b&b website? will you send them some kind of certificate 'supporter of the trail' something like that?

[email protected] said:

sorry don't really understand what a rail trail is = but am super happy a company is supporting local stuff! we are lucky here as the bus company who services our area donates £1000 ($2000) every year for supporting Christmas lights and activities!.

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Cambs - when a railroad abandons the right-of-way it can be put into the rail bank and possibly purchased (the railroad sells a quit claim deed which only says they are selling any interests they MAY have in this land, which may possibly be none if there are revision clauses) for an outrageous amount of money. The track is then removed, the ballast (rock and soil around the track) removed and disposed of as contaminated material, and a surface of crushed limestone or asphalt is put down to make it usable for biking, hiking, and in some cases as in my trail, equestrian use. Funds have been available on an 80/20 basis through Federal Transportation grants with the non-profit or governmental agency requesting the grant supplying 20% of the funds needed for the project. Grants are not available for maintenance - just for purchase and building or major repairs such as washouts or mud/rock slides.
I had never approached this aircraft company (never thought of it to be honest) but it will help 3 rail-trails in this area with drainage and maintenance issues. I chose these trails because they are in the areas the employees of this company would live in.