2014 EVTA Recap

6,574 hours. That’s just shy of 274 days. According to Bill Blackley, the EVTA Governing Group Chairperson, those are the hours the organization dedicated to various projects in 2014. It’s quite a list:

Work projects:

• Three Boy Scout Eagle projects
• Six benches
• Three new bridges of 25, 25 and 140-feet
• Two rain shelters
• Viewing deck
• Steel art structure construction
• Middle and high school work days
• Native species planting and grant work
• New trail work
• New signage construction and installation
• Memorial Monument for Fallen Warrior
• Horseback trail construction
• Website upgrade
• Watershed management
• Trout fishing initiation
• Mountain bike planning
• Christmas decorations on trail
• Ebirding with designation of birding hotspot
• Handicap accessibility planning and implementation
• Farmer’s Market booth
• QR coding signs
• Book, hat and shirt sales

Events:

• Wellness walk and program with local hospital
• Insane Terrain foot race
• Tour de Vino bike ride
• Vineyard stomps
• Tour de Yadkin
• Elkin Valley Fiddlers Float
• Trails Boogie and Silent Auction
• Duck & Turtle Regatta – partnered with Yadkin Valley Rotary

EVTA business and public relations:

• Meetings
• Grant applications
• Project management with high school, radio & TV programs
• Negotiating new easements, new trails, plus general bushwhacking and hobnobbing
• 17 presentations (at least)
• Coordination of construction donations
• Coordination with towns, counties and regional organizations like Piedmont Triad Council of Governments, Yadkin Valley Chamber, Yadkin Valley Rotary, Yadkin Valley Heritage Corridor and Overmountain Victory Trail
• Constant Contact monthly news blast
• Mailing fundraiser
• Contact with NC National Guard and NC DOT units
• Create master plan for Mountains to Sea Trail from Stone Mountain to Pilot Mountain
• Shared successes at Friends of the Mountains to Sea Trail “Trail Town” symposium

2015 promises to be just as productive. Projects include the 200-foot bridge, new trail and mountain bike course construction and maintenance.