Coos County, NH

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021

Project Category: Trails

Description: The Cross New Hampshire Adventure Trail is an 83-mile bicycle route that runs between Woodsville, N.H to Bethel, Maine. Stitched together from existing rail trails, dirt roads, and paved backroads, the route winds though scenic river valleys and around the slopes of the White Mountains. To make the route more welcoming to people of all ages and abilities, this project installed benches. Project organizers chose two ADA-accessible sections of the path for the new seating -- the Presidential Rail Trail and the Pondicherry National Wildlife Refuge. They enlisted the help of two llamas to haul lumber to several scenic spots, then volunteers worked to put the benches together onsite.

Conway, NH

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2017

Project Category: Accessory dwelling units, tiny homes and manufactured housing

Description: In 2017, the New Hampshire legislature legalized the construction of accessory dwelling units throughout the state. To promote this age-friendly housing option, the Mount Washington Valley Housing Coalition created information about the benefits of ADUs. This included print resources, videos and in-person presentations, which they distributed throughout the 10 towns encompassing the Mount Washington Valley. "What was most gratifying were the responses from everyone who heard the multiple benefits of ADUs, realized their own properties could qualify, saw the possibilities for elderly parents, learned that the old regulations no longer applied and felt empowered to talk to their own planning board members to advocate for flexible and permissive interpretations of the law," a representative of the coalition said. Since launching the initiative, the coalition has worked to educate real estate agents about ADUs. The organization has since added a town-by-town guide to local ADU ordinances.