Saturday is Heritage Day

BY PHILL BARNETT
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN

INEZ — The God’s Promise and Kingfisher trails have been repaired and improved by volunteer efforts from community members and Appalachia Reach Out.

The main improvements to the trails are landscaping near the one-room Trace Fork schoolhouse that sits at the intersection of the two trails and the replacement of much of the stair and bridge lumber along the Kingfisher Trail.

Much of the labor for the improvements was provided by volunteer teams through ARO.

According to Dwayne Mills of ARO, the nonprofit ministry works with 20-30 teams from outside the area each year on community service projects around Martin County. While many of these projects are for private residents in need, ARO is also involved in multiple public works projects, including the restoration of the Historic Martin County Courthouse.

“The teams that worked on [the trails] were from Michigan and Ohio and Arkansas,” said Mills.

ARO was contacted by a local group of volunteers who maintain the trails, including AJ Haney and Nita Collier.

Mills sits on an informal committee that helps direct the High Obesity Program grant that Martin County receives from the University of Kentucky.

“One of the pieces of that is getting out and exercising and all that and having places where that can happen,” said Mills.

Mills emphasized the importance of the trail stair repairs for making that goal possible.

“Those steps were basically getting to a point that you couldn’t really walk on some of them.”

While the repairs and improvements were important for making exercise more accessible to Martin Countians, locals are not the only ones using the trails.

“One of the things our teams will do, on their free time, is enjoy the God’s Promise Trail and the Kingfisher Trail,” said Mills. “So that’s really important to us as well.

“But I think the greater piece of it is just reinvesting back into our community,” Mills said. “It’s important for our folks to have places like that where they can go and get some exercise no matter their age. Having a place that’s safe and secure to make that happen is really important to us.”

Saturday is Heritage Day in Martin County. Old-fashioned celebrations with a soup bean dinner, mountain storytelling, and front porch picking will take place at the intersection of the Kingfisher and God’s Promise trails.

Come enjoy the newly renovated trails, win giveaways and celebrate Martin County’s heritage.