Boligee, AL

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022

Project Category: Trails

Description: The rural town of Boligee lacked parks, walking trails and sidewalks. Recently, the Town purchased the former junior high school property and repurposed it into a recreation complex, which hosts classes and community events. To give residents an outdoor gathering space, this project created a new trail and garden onsite. Volunteers cleared a path for the trail and installed brick pavers. They also added raised flowerbeds and benches to give visitors a place to rest and socialize. Additionally, organizers installed a roof over an unused concrete slab, transforming it into a pavilion. The Town now invites older adults to tend to the flowerbeds. Organizers say they hope the trail and garden foster improved community health.

Bangor, ME

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022

Project Category: Trails

Description: Residents identified safety and accessibility issues along the Kenduskeag Stream Trail, where overgrown vegetation and poor signage made walking difficult for older adults. The project installed benches, improved parking lot lighting and added a solar-powered pedestrian crosswalk system to enhance visibility and safety. These upgrades encouraged more trail use and social interaction. "Having benches makes the trail more active, which also added to her feeling more safe taking a walk alone," said one resident. The city now plans additional improvements, including interpretive signage and grading work.

Project description was created using generative AI and then reviewed for accuracy.

Madison, WI

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021

Project Category: Trails

Description: The spot where a popular pedestrian and bicycle path connects with Leopold Community School has needed repairs for years. The Cannonball Path's entrance was cracked and overgrown with weeds. To make the gateway to the path more welcoming, volunteers laid new concrete, planted native perennials alongside the path, added interpretive signage and installed solar lighting. New benches give people a space to sit and to appreciate the sculpture that adorns the trail entrance. The artwork depicts a fiddlehead fronds -- an homage to the local ecology. Today, the space gives educators the opportunity to teach students about local wildlife and also acts as a drop-off location for parents escorting their children to school. Project organizers say the improvements are part of community-wide efforts to give people more resting spaces along local trails.