The Trail Foundation
Board of Directors
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Bill Kerr, President
Kelly Hart and Hallman
Colin Wallis, Vice Pres. Lance Armstrong Foundation
Jack Collins, Treasurer
Frost Bank
Peter Huff, Secretary
Blue Sage Capital
Dave Andreas
Silicon Laboratories
Corey Blahuta
vcfo
Bill Curra, P.E.
KBR
Lynn Currie
Mercury Mambo
Griffin Davis
MarketHardware.com
Mike Elhaj
Simple Power
Asher Flynn
Asher Flynn Realtors
Lisa E. Huddleson
LEH Philanthropy Advisors
Christopher Kennedy
LCRA
John Loudamy
Pluck Corporation
Brian Ott
TBG Partners
Sarah Russ
Communications Consultant
Stephanie Shoemaker
Maxwell Locke & Ritter
Jim Sud
Whole Foods Market
Margot K. Thomas
Community Activist
Jesse Weiss
Greenberg Traurig
Susan Plettman Rankin
Executive Director
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Join Our List
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Between the Bridges Ribbon Cutting
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 The Between the Bridges project is now successfully completed, and TTF held a Ribbon Cutting on September 30 to officially welcome the newest Trail enhancement.
Our sincere thanks to all who came out to celebrate! Sara Hensley, Director of the Austin Parks and Recreation Department, cut the ribbon to formally complete the effort. Between the Bridges will meet the needs of the increasing use of the Trail and serve as a pleasant and beautiful resting and meeting place on the Trail.
Special thanks to the 24 Silicon Labs Green Team volunteers who planted nearly 800 perennials in the space on September 19!
Pictures: Top - Parks and
Recreation Department's Sara Hensley (middle) cut the ribbon with (from
left) Susan Rankin, Bill Kerr, Dave Andreas and Brian Ott at the event
on September 30.
Bottom - Silicon Labs Green Team volunteers plant the Between the Bridges area.
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TTF Chosen as Decker Challenge Beneficiary
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The Austin Runner's Club (ARC) announced that TTF will be the beneficiary of the Decker Challange for the 7th year in a row! ARC is a long-time supporter of TTF and sponsored the Zero Mile Marker at Auditorium Shores, marking the Trail's beginning.
We are proud that ARC has again chosen TTF as a beneficiary of the 2009 Decker Challange. Register now for this famous race!
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| Volunteer for Trash & Treasure Cleanup
October 17 |
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Volunteers happily infused with organic coffee and Maudie's TexMex breakfast tacos will soon descend on the Trail to pick up trash and remove debris of all varieties from MoPac to Longhorn Dam. At the October 17 Trash & Treasure (9 a.m. at various start points; click link to register) Trail-loving volunteers collect and dispose of litter and debris... but also locate treasures! How's that, you ask? Our generous in-kind sponsors donate gifts that we hide in various spots along the Trail for our volunteers to claim for a job well done.
New this year: Volunteer kayakers, who'll remove debris from the shoreline of Lady Bird Lake. Special thanks go to our terrific partner Keep Austin Beautiful who organizes these Lady Bird Lake cleanups. As part of our mission to protect and enhance the Trail, in early 2009, the Trail Foundation contributed $12,500 to Keep Austin Beautiful to partially fund a pilot program designed to regularly remove litter that mars the natural beauty of the Lake. The shoreline trash that distracts many of us as we jog along the Trail also damages urban habitat. We'll highlight this program in our November newsletter.
Register today! Space is limited, so sign up early.
Thank you to our sponsors:
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Austin Children's Museum, Austin Duck Adventures, Bicycle Sport Shop, Castle Hill Fitness, CleanScapes, Clif Bar, Great Outdoors, Jack & Adams Bicycles, Lift Café, Maudie's Tex-Mex, Paramount & State Theatres, Peter Pan Mini Golf, REI, Rogue Running, Schlotzky's, Sweetish Hill Bakery & Café, Texas Rowing Center, Waterloo Records and Video, Yoga Yoga, Zach Theatre
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New Commemorative Bricks at Lou Neff Point
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 The commemoratvie bricks donated between January 6 and July 9 have now been installed at Lou Neff Point. You can find the location of your friends' and family's bricks by searching our brick database.
You can still donate bricks! The engraved bricks are a lasting way to connect you, your Trail friends, and your family to the Trail that sustains us all.
Picture: Volunteer Nancy Collins maps the newly installed bricks.
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A Lasting Impression
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The project began in April, as so many of us wanted to do something
special for Carmen Ayala and Ricardo Troncoso as they celebrated their 50th
birthdays. There was talk of a party, perhaps a run, and even acquiring 50
special bottles of wine, and so on.
We seized the moment, however, when we noticed the Lou Neff Point
stones and thought, "Why Not?" - Fifty years is a long time, but the stones
would be around for many, many years to come. The money that would be donated
would go to The Trail Foundation to continue enhancements and improvements on the
Trail. Because of this we had an overwhelming response, and collected enough
money to purchase two $1,000 bricks.
Through their coaching, Carmen and Ricardo have given so much to the
community that it was fitting that the stones on the trail would inspire us to
continue our quest to keep on running, no matter the speed! The people who
donated to the project were not only lifelong friends but those who've enjoyed
the privilege of having been coached by them in the past.
Perhaps the hardest thing of all was keeping the whole thing a
surprise. Since we didn't want to tell Carmen and Ricardo about the tiles until
everything was set in place, we went through an elaborate scheme to get them to
meet us at Lou Neff Point.
They arrived without a clue - except that we were all acting
strangely! Much to their surprise, we told them what we had been up to, and
they were truly touched by the gesture and that we'd gotten this accomplished.
Picture: Friends surprise Carmen Alaya and Ricardo Troncoso with two of their very own large commemorative bricks at Lou Neff Point, helping the running duo celebrate their 50th birthdays in style.
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Gardens Available for Adoption
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 A raised garden on the Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge and a garden at Longhorn Dam are now ready for adoption. Both of these gardens have water available. Join our Lady Bird Adopt-a-Garden program which has grown to 34 gardens carefully tended by TTF volunteers. If you are interested in designing, planting and maintaining a garden on the Trail, please email us! Picture: The garden on the Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge available for adoption.
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Bird Watching on The Trail
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By Jane Tillman
Travis Audubon Society Urban Habitat Committee
Can you spot the Wilson's Warbler in the photo?
My
husband and I decided to check out the trail on the Sunday morning of Labor Day
Weekend to see what kinds of birds call it home. Since fall migration is underway, we were also on the
lookout for migrants like warblers, orioles, and Monarch butterflies.
It
was already 10 a.m. and close to 90 degrees, and already lively along the water-
not the best birding scenario. Thank goodness for all the side trails and
benches where one could pause and look.
Even
with the drought, most trees looked reasonably healthy, perked up a bit by the
recent rain. In bloom were trumpet vine with its orange flowers, along
with red Turk's cap and purple bindweed, and two hummingbirds (either
Black-chinned or Ruby-throated) were fighting over the healthy blossoms at Lou
Neff Point.
...
The
best bird sighting, though, was a single, bright-eyed migrating Wilson's
Warbler, feeding on insects on the south side of the lake very close to the
trail. Several White-eyed Vireos, which spend their summers with us, and
one Green Heron flushed by passing kayakers, also made appearances. Another
neat thing about this time of year is the number of juvenile birds in evidence
- like wrens with extra short tails and mockingbirds still with spots. Click here to read the rest of Jane's article and learn more about enjoying birds at the Trail. | |
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The Trail Foundation
PO Box 5195 l Austin, TX 78763 l 512-733-3989
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