Come celebrate the Brandon Trail Renovation, an east/west trail section of the Longfellow Creek Legacy Trail. This section of trail is now a usable trail connecting Camp Long and Longfellow Creek and the rest of Delridge. Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association and the Longfellow Creek Watershed Council and their volunteers played a key role in getting this trail completed.

Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association will be distributing a new West Seattle Trails/Neighborhoods on Foot map. The map is designed to allow people to choose routes based on time and trail type, enabling them to travel to a destination or just for recreation. Trails promote health, both physical and mental, and help to build community.

In The Case for Urban Open Space by William Poole, he states that:

One key link between parks and health is the opportunity for regular exercise and to escape what [Frederick Law] Olmsted called 'jar of the streets.' Exercise helps maintain healthy bones and muscles, builds cardiovascular fitness and relieves the psychological and physiological stress long linked to poor health. The chance to escape the city's noise and bustle also relieves stress, which might otherwise be expressed through aggression or the abuse of drugs and alcohol.

In Hiking: the Ultimate Natural Prescription for Health, Phillip Ferranti says:

Nature becomes our Touchstone...By taking time out from our busy days, hiking or riding out to some natural setting, we feed our souls with the substance of nature's truths. The role of trails is simple - they take us where we may relate, be healed, touched, inspired, and ... they provide opportunities to be with families and friends, to create happy memories, to become physically and mentally fit, and allow us to travel from place to place.

Volunteers are always needed to work on our trails. Pam Gluck, the Executive Director of American Trails says, "Remember you aren't just 'building trails,' you are 'building community.' If you have only called yourself a trailbuilder, you have sold yourself short."

EVENT INFORMATION

DATE: Saturday, June 21, 2008

TIME: 10:00 to 10:30

PLACE: SW Brandon & 26th Ave SW

There will be light refreshments during celebration followed by a trail work party until 2:00.