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After nearly 3 months of continuous
activities, on November 13th the Celebration of Trails,
an annual autumn
festival of trails events that occurs in City of Kawartha Lakes, and
the Counties of Haliburton, Hastings, Lennox and Addington,
Northumberland, Peterborough, and Prince Edward will wrap with a
guided tour through the Haliburton Sculpture Forest.
Since
its 2007 kick-off event held in Lindsay on August 18th
which commemorated the opening of the newly-paved section of the
Victoria Rail Trail, nearly 40 main events and about 100 different
trail-based activities have taken place across the seven
participating counties of
Eastern Ontario
.
Support
for the Celebration has come from both the Ontario Trillium
Foundation and the Eastern Ontario Development Program, a Government
of Canada initiative, managed through Industry
Canada
/ FedNor and delivered locally by the Kawartha Lakes CFDC.
"The
event represents an important contribution by the Federal Government
to
Eastern Ontario
. The Celebration of
Trails began three years ago as an idea to bring attention to one of
our area’s great resources, the network of trails that run across
Eastern Ontario
,” said Barry Devolin, Member of Parliament for
Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock.
“It promotes active lifestyles and healthy living, while
supporting local event organizers and indeed, helping educate people
young and old about all that our trails have to offer.
I’m pleased to see this type of wide-scale promotion that
also attracts tourism dollars and local investment into our
communities; it’s an excellent demonstration of the thinking
behind the Eastern Ontario Development Program.”
Events
have included highly competitive races such as the Frontier
Adventure Challenge in North Addington featuring hiking, mountain
biking and canoeing/kayaking, and the Achilles Rail Trail Relay
running race through
Peterborough
County
and the City of
Kawartha Lakes
. Many signature events
such as the Hike Haliburton Festival and Northumberland Trail Fest
provide something for every one and every age with walking, hiking,
cycling, canoeing and horseback riding.
Some
events are truly geared to be casual and enjoyable while generating
local support; these include the 5 and 10 kilometre walks during the
“Friends of the Trail Hiking Day” in Hastings County; while
others like the “Hastings Highlands Hilly Hundred” offer race
distances of up to 240 kilometres for the real cycling enthusiast.
Many events also tie into local and national charities, such
as the “Taking Steps Against Breast Cancer” in Picton, the
“Walk/Run for the James Fund”, held just last weekend in
Peterborough
in support of Neuroblastoma Research, and Terry Fox Runs.
Finally, activities like the “World Record Walk” and the
“Ganaraska Hiking
Trail 40th Anniversary” brought further attention to
trails and trails activity overall.
“When
we first started out we wanted to generate awareness of trails and
the fact they represent many opportunities—both for health as well
as local economic prosperity.” stated Andrew Wallen, General
Manager of the Kawartha Lakes CFDC, who has served as Chair of the
Celebration of Trails Management Group since activities began.
“We have had tremendous growth; initially planning for 5
events and getting 16 last year, and then expanding to 40 this year.
The Committee and event organizers, the municipalities, our
partners and sponsors have always been there, working to keep the
Celebration of Trails utmost in peoples’ minds over a truly
expansive territory and time frame.”
“None
of this could have been possible without all of these people and our
Project Manager, Barrie Martin, who always remained focused on our
goals and objectives and ensured that as a group we provided
assistance—not direction—to all those great activities that take
place on the trails every fall.
We thank everyone and look forward to developing plans and
garnering even more support within looking to make 2008 our biggest
year yet!”
For
more information on the Celebration of Trails, please visit the web
site, www.celebrationoftrails.ca
.
For
details on next Wednesday’s (November 13th) Guided
Walking Tour of the
Haliburton
Sculpture
Forest
please visit www.haliburtonsculptureforest.ca
or call (705) 457-3555.
NOTE:
CELEBRATION OF TRAILS FACT SHEET FOLLOWS
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30 --
For
more information on the Celebration
of Trails please contact:
Barrie
Martin, Project Manager, Celebration of Trails
705-754-3436
barrie.martin@sympatico.ca
Andrew
Wallen, General Manager, Kawartha Lakes CFDC
705-328-0261
info@kawarthasmallbusiness.com
For
more information on the Guided
Walking Tour of the Haliburton Sculpture Forest please contact:
Jim
Blake,
Haliburton
County
Development
(CFDC)
705-457-3555
info@haliburtonsculptureforest.ca
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