From left, Brittney Jerred and Marie Mankiewicz of Fulton Footpaths; Inga Back and April Marx of OCO.
FULTON, NY – More than 90 people showed up to the Canalview Bridge Walk event with at least 60 of those people walking the 1.8-mile trail across Fulton’s bridges and through some of the city’s historic downtown area.
A collaboration between Oswego County Opportunities, Fulton Footpaths and the city of Fulton, the event allowed the public to walk the Canalview Bridge trail showcasing new permanent signs marking the paved trail.
The signs were made available through the Impact Program at OCO in its first year of a three year grant funded through the NYS Department of Health.
The Impact Program, with a focus on the prevention of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and stroke, has aimed to encourage and improve opportunities for physical activity and access to healthy food in the Fulton community.
OCO’s Impact Program hosted the Canalview Bridge Walk event with the intent to continue that focus, creating an opportunity to promote physical activity and healthy living.
OCO partnered with Fulton Footpaths for the chance to highlight one of the many recreational trails in the city that the organization seeks to better establish.
Founded by Brittney Jerred and Marie Mankiewicz, Fulton Footpaths is currently in the grant writing step in the process to secure financial support through the NYS consolidated funding application for a feasibility study.
With the study, the group can further understand the financial necessities for their overall goal of creating and connecting eight multipurpose walking trails throughout the city of Fulton complete with pedestrian lighting, benches, gardens, historical markers, local artwork displays, areas designated for fitness equipment and more.
The goal is to encourage physical activity, create a tourism venue and spur economic development in the region while allowing trail users to observe the city’s many scenic features.
As one of the eight trails incorporated, Fulton Footpaths teamed with OCO to host the Canalview Bridge Walk to show the amount of usage and interest there is for such trails while also showcasing the five newly installed orange signs marking the trail.
A brochure handed out at the event highlighted three historical sites on the trail including the U.S. Post Office built in the early 20th century, the John Wells Pratt House built in 1863, and the Fulton Public Library built in 1905.
OCO and Fulton Footpaths created a challenge for those who wish to utilize this particular trail.
The Canalview Bridge trail, a total of 1.8 miles from start to finish at the downtown gazebo, will equal 24 miles when walked 14 times. The challenge is to walk the trail 14 times to complete the 24 miles and then post the success on social media using the hash-tag #24CanalviewBridgeWalk.
Brochures handed out at the event gave 14 symbols to shade in for each lap completed to show the successful completion of the challenge, the same brochures can be picked up at the Fulton Public Library or from the Fulton Footpath’s Facebook page.
Many of the public who attended the event got started on their challenge that night, while also enjoying healthy snacks, smoothies made from a bike powered blender, prizes, information from the YMCA and CNY Arts Center, and even face painting and a presentation on the benefits of cardiovascular activity from Fulton Junior High School students.
For more information on OCO, celebrating their 50th year of service to the Oswego County community, visit their website, here.
For more information on Fulton Footpaths, visit their Facebook page, here. Sponsorship or donations may be made to Fulton Footpaths for financial assistance in completing a feasibility study through the Fulton Community Revitalization Corporation.
This is odd, there are several sign companies in Oswego County and yet “OSWEGO” County Opportunities continues to ignore Oswego County based businesses and purchases signs from Onondaga County based sign businesses at higher costs. It would have been nice to have had the opportunity to even quote these signs to verify costs but I can say that my Oswego County based business did not quote the signs, I do not know if any of the other Oswego County based sign businesses quoted these signs but I suspect that none of them were contacted either.
This is CERTAINLY disappointing to continue to see an Oswego County based operation completely ignore their own neighbor businesses right here in Oswego County. Continuing to do so…those businesses will likely either leave or disappear altogether. Since I have been operating in Fulton I have been constantly working to lower my costs and the costs of my customers while at the same time providing the highest quality and have been very successful doing so. My sign shop is one of about four sign shops in all of Central NY that has a C & C router to produce carved signs, shapes and letters and it’s located right here in Fulton, NY. I don’t want this to turn into an ad…rather it is just a reminder to other Oswego County based businesses and operations that there are a number of qualified and quality based sign businesses right here in Oswego County and they deserve at the very least a shot. I would like to hire fulltime help but it is difficult when local business ignores neighboring businesses.
Maybe Oswego County Opportunities should change their name to Onondaga County Opportunities, they can still call themselves OCO.