Another big step forward for the Raccoon River Valley Trail!

The “Friends” is a new donor program, which is offering new ways to help support this 89-mile paved trail that is now recognized as one of America’s best recreational trails. And there are new donor recognition opportunities, too.

The “Friends of the RRVT” will now fund the work of the Raccoon River Valley Trail Association, the 8-year-old non-profit organization which has as its mission “to market and promote the Raccoon River Valley Trail and all the communities along it.”

The RRVT Association is closing out this year with 699 members, and then it will cease being a “membership” organization. Instead, all those members are now being invited to become “Friends of the RRVT” for 2014. That invitation is going out in this story, as well as in an email “blast” to current members.

HOW IT WILL WORK

You can join by making a $25 “Friends Annual Trail Pass Donation,” which gets you a 2014 trail user permit. Of that amount, $10 pays for the trail permit, and that money will be divided among the Dallas, Guthrie and Greene County Conservation Boards, which own and operate the trail. The other $15 goes to the RRVT Association to help fund its work.

But the RRVT Association is also encouraging larger “Friends General Donations,” which can be for any amount and which do not come with a trail permit. However, if you donate $250 or more, you will be recognized at major trail-related events, on the RRVT’s display booth and on this Internet site. “Friends of the RRVT” is also offering three other new opportunities – making a donation as a holiday gift to someone else or yourself, donating as part of your year-end charitable giving, and including the organization in your estate planning.

You can do that online, by clicking here, or you can pay in-person or by mail at the RRVT Association headquarters, 14581 K Avenue, Perry, Iowa 50220.