A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas

Trailblazers: A Journey of Transformation and Connectivity

• Visit Bentonville • Season 7 • Episode 23

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Uncover the remarkable story of Trailblazers, a nonprofit transforming Bentonville's biking landscape. Join us for an inspiring conversation with CEO Erin Rushing as we explore community involvement, trail connectivity, and exciting volunteer opportunities. Learn how a local leadership project evolved into a force for change, and discover ways you can contribute to this thriving outdoor community. For more information, visit wearetrailblazers.org IG: @we.are.trailblazers FB: We Are Trailblazers.

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Nat Ross:

Welcome to A New American Town, a podcast presented by Visit Bentonville. I'm your host, nat Ross, with our latest spike edition of podcast broadcasting from Haxton Studios. This is near the downtown Bentonville Square. Join us as we share stories, insights, happenings from our city, connecting you with the locals who make this town worth visiting. Today we're very fortunate we get to talk Rushing the CEO of Trailblazers. So I actually had the pleasure of getting to meet many years ago when I rolled into town from Colorado, and his crew were extremely welcoming. That's because of the Trailblazers, that's because that's what they do. can you fill us in those that are from the area and those that want to visit Bentonville sooner or later, of what Trailblazers is a little bit of the history, how Trailblazers came about?

Erin Rushing:

Yeah, sure, nat. Hey, I remember that well. I don't even think you'd even moved here yet before I met you. History of the Trailblazers it started out as a nonprofit. Just some local leaders got together. It initially came about out of a leadership class and out of that leadership class it was a Benton County leadership class. They had a project. End of the year they had a project. This class in particular had their project as the Lake Bella Vista Trail which goes around Lake Bella Vista, wildly popular trail. Still today. You still see probably 20,000 users per month when it's open.

Erin Rushing:

um, obviously it has some challenges right now with a bridge but anyway it started out of a leadership class um, I was the first paid employee in 2016 and, uh, you know. What we do is we develop biking infrastructure greenways, shared use paths, paths and a lot of mountain bike trails. We've been very busy over the last eight years putting down some mountain bike trails. So yeah, it's been fun, it's crazy, it's busy and a lot of new stuff in the last few years.

Nat Ross:

, I think the momentum that Trailblazers has is really reflective of Bentonville in general. So I was coming to Bentonville specifically for the mountain bike trails back in the day with the inception of the IMBA World Summit and you and your crew were busy opening up at that point in time. Connectivity elements, Greenway I remember you took us through Kohler, one of the very first kind of tours, when Esters and the basic Greenway element was kind of all getting put together. So can you inform us of the importance of the connectivity element between the communities?

Erin Rushing:

Yeah, you know Kohler was kind of our flagship park there prior to the EMBA Summit in 2016. You know we had a piece of paved trail in Kohler. It really didn't connect so much but until it connected through Third Street and up the Applegate Trail it was really just kind of out there by itself, had some amazing mountain bike trails. But the connectivity piece just keeps getting better With 3rd Street, with Applegate and then 8th Street. We're hoping eventually Kohler's connected on the north too, all the way up to where Lowe's is, north Bentonville, and it's going to be. You know, we think it's popular now. Once it's connected on both ends, it's going to be really, really special and it's going to get really busy, which is awesome.

Nat Ross:

So, in general, let's fill us in on the nonprofit component so a lot of resorts and communities like this have nonprofits and Trailblazers was set up as a nonprofit and that vision speaks to kind of the mission statement that you guys do and what's the importance of the nonprofit status and keeping it in that role.

Erin Rushing:

Yeah, you know, we, we were started back in the late 90s as a nonprofit and most people don't think we've been around. We've gotten, obviously, busier as time goes by. You know that first trail, that first trail in the late 90s took seven years to raise enough money to build that trail around Lake Bellavista. We've evolved, we'veavista. We've evolved. We've got support, we've got funding. The Walton Family Foundation has stepped up.

Erin Rushing:

They're a big part of what we do and you know, without starting a long time ago, just from local volunteers, and I tell everybody like, look, you can start, you can start, you can get to where we are today. It just takes work. You gotta get good volunteers, you gotta dedicate, you gotta have a mission, you gotta have a vision. And you know we're very, very fortunate to have the community support that we have. Uh, we could always use more, right, we could always use more. We need some donations, especially since the storm. But Trailblazers is a really unique, special organization. We get calls and we get calls all over the country wanting to know how do we do what we did and how do we get this in our community. So I'm very privileged to be part of that and it's been really fun. It's been really fun.

Nat Ross:

And your staff is reflective of that, especially all the different volunteer groups that you get to work with. So, um, working at trailblazers must be, uh, the best job ever because of the element that it's outdoors. I know you have an indoor office, but literally you are making sure that people recreate, that people are living a healthy, active, outdoor lifestyle, one of the reasons that they like to stay in Bentonville and a lot of folks like to visit. So you did mention there is a pretty significant impact of the recent storms and the tornadoes. Is there a way that folks can kind of get involved? So if they go to your website, you have that pull-down tab that says get involved. But if they can make a contribution and they're not in the area, how would one go about doing that? Or if they don't have the means but they want to do, some got a donate button, which is great.

Erin Rushing:

Or just stop by the office. I mean, we'll take cash, check, whatever we need all the help we can get. But if they're not from around here, go look at our website, hit that donate button and if that doesn't work for you, just give us a call and then you can volunteer. We've had three work days so far since the storm. The first one we had at the castle two days really three days after the storm we had 200 people show up on a Wednesday evening. We did one the next Saturday, had almost 300 people show up out of Hank to Hollow. Then we just had another one this past weekend on All-American and had a little over 100 people show up out at hank to hollow. And we just had another one this past weekend on the all-american and had a little over 100 people show up.

Erin Rushing:

So it's awesome to see the community roll out and and we we haven't had large turnouts like this in in our trail maintenance program the storm damage obviously it was. It was hard. It's been really hard to get kind of back to normal. But to see the amount of people show up and the community support, it's been really, really special and I hope it keeps going. We're going to have more opportunities. We're going to give our volunteers a break this weekend, but maybe the next Saturday we'll have another one. We'll pick out a location that hasn't been hit yet. But yeah, it's been really cool seeing the support from the community and, again, you know we know they're out there.

Erin Rushing:

We have a great volunteer program, a trail adoption program. It's amazing. We're so lucky to have that. But just to have hordes of volunteers show up on a Saturday, it's really cool. It's really cool. Volunteers show up on Saturday, it's really cool. It's really cool and I had no idea. But they can knock some stuff out and it's really fun to watch them work and they're so quick, so efficient and it's been really it's as hard as it's been over the last two weeks. That part of it and seeing the volunteers and see the community support has been really cool.

Nat Ross:

Erin, what age group can someone be if they wanted to bring their family and help out? And then what would they wear? Like what's a typical attire that someone can show up with, and even like a span of four hours? Is that possible?

Erin Rushing:

Yeah, yeah, what we're doing is we've kind of got a system where you know our trailblazer team will go in that day or two early, they'll cut the trees out of the way and they'll leave them when the volunteers get there. We've got a system where the volunteers in front of the mussels so they're throwing the big logs out of the way and the next group could be raking, and then behind that could be some loppers and just you know, doing that fine dressing of the trail. The castle actually looked better after the storm, believe it or not, than it did before this storm, just because the volunteers so much work. So we've got a system. Any age group can come out. We just got to be careful where we where we put. You know the littles want to help, but we just got to be careful where we put them.

Erin Rushing:

But everybody can come out volunteer. We love it. Every trail needs rake. Every trail needs rake. Every trail needs rake. So there's always an opportunity for anyone to come out. We'll provide rakes. We'll provide gloves, sunscreen, water, beer. It'll be fun. It's always fun.

Nat Ross:

That's great, Erin. I do know my wife, Amy Ross, and I have a section of of trail. We're part TAP and and and for our section it's roughly a two mile trail that we've adopted and and a lot of friends help us work on it. Um, I would like to see if um tap can grow from this because of folks realizing how fun it is to work on the trail, um that kind of stewardship element once they take part. So you're seeing how rewarding this is from a lot of folks that haven't worked on trail much before, correct.

Erin Rushing:

Right, that's right. Yeah, you know, within our TAP program, you can go to our website and you can actually physically see the trail. You can click on the trail. The map is colored either red or green. Green means it's's adopted, red mean it's still available for adoption. So if you live near the trails and there's a red section by your trail, feel free to click on that line and and adopt it and help us maintain it. Our trailblazer team is pretty distracted with with tree removal right now, um, so we're getting a little behind on weed eating and raking everything, so we could really really use the extra help right now out on the trails that are still open.

Nat Ross:

Yeah, I mean the community support that you've been getting just on social media and everything alone. So I follow on Instagram and that's at wertrailblazers. The action there, the social media that you guys have been putting up, is great because it's really such a good feeling for the community that's giving back. How about? I know that a lot of folks still want to come to Bentonville and haven't been to Bentonville. What's a sneak peek of once we get past this stage of cleaning up the local trails? What else do you foresee Trailblazers getting involved in in the future, in the next year or two? Not that you guys aren't busy enough, but stuff happens fast in Bentonville. So what are you guys looking at down the future pipelines?

Erin Rushing:

Yeah, on the mountain bike trails we got a lot of damage from the storm, so I could foresee us continuing to make the trails. You know, we've kind of pushed all the debris to the side. That next phase, the phase two of this, is probably pulling some of that back out of the woods, trying to clean the woods up a little bit, trying to put the trails back together. On the paved trail side we're really working hard on active transportation, how to get people to work, how to get kids to school. We've got a lot of paved trail projects going on right now and it's really something that needed to be done a long time ago.

Erin Rushing:

But we're really deep in it, and we've got miles and miles and miles planned for Bentonville.

Nat Ross:

Man, it's just amazing the trail networks and the expansion and you brought up a great point about the limbs and just all of the debris that came off of the big trees themselves. So that can't stay on the trails, that does have to go and there's a lot of work that will be ongoing with the debris from the tornadoes.

Nat Ross:

So, Erin, I think the big thing for the community is for trailblazers on your team. What does the camaraderie look like inside of trailblazers? You invited folks to swing by the office. What would they typically see office crew and what is the size of trailblazers? You invited folks to swing by the office.

Erin Rushing:

What would they?

Nat Ross:

typically see the office crew and what is the size of Trailblazers for the staff?

Erin Rushing:

Yeah. So right now we've got about 25 employees. Half of us are in the office, the other half are out on the trails and the office staff is involved with a lot of mapping, gis planning, with a lot of mapping, gis planning, easement negotiations. You know, design work out in the field and they're doing whatever they can right to keep these trails sweet. They're out there. They could be fixing jump lines, they could be, you know, obviously cutting down trees, but it's really our guys out in the field work hard. I've been fortunate to work with them the last couple weeks, off and on. I respect them so much, they work so hard and put so much into it. It is an amazing group of individuals, guys and girls out there. They're working hard for our community and they take pride in everything they do. So we've got a great group of people.

Nat Ross:

We really do so we've got a great group of people. We really do. Yeah, and what do you typically see for the younger kids that are not in school these days? What could be something that they could assist with with the trailblazers, if the parents are out there and want to get the kids out of the house, or if they have a trail through their backyard? What would be something this summer, perhaps that some of the younger students that are out there that are not in school that do want to get back to the community, what could they do?

Erin Rushing:

Yeah, you know, we have through our Trail of Diction program. We have nights. We'll have work days and volunteer follow us. We'll have work days about every month. They can volunteer to help get outside. We'll have work days and volunteer follow us. We'll have work days about every month. They can volunteer to help get outside. Again, every single trail needs raked. We're fortunate there's so much traffic on the trails, which helps more traffic helps maintain trails. But what that does is also generates a little more work with just just raking and grooming and making them making them sweet. But yeah, man, there there's all kinds of opportunities to volunteer, not only within TAP but just within our program and learning how to maintain trails. I drag my young son out and the girls whenever I get a chance, so it's been really cool.

Nat Ross:

Great. Well, Erin, can you tell us what the website is again, or anywhere that folks that are listening could join? Just to get more information.

Erin Rushing:

Yeah, just follow us at WeAreTrailblazers and again hit on that Get Involved button and there will be opportunities to get engaged. Donate whatever opportunity there is out there. Right now we really need help with just tree removal. We're doing the tree removal kind of priority as we can. All-american we just had a work day on All-American. The castle's been open for about a week and a half now. We're progressing through Slaughter Pin. Right now We've got Hancock Hollow open. Trails aren't closed. They're pieces of Slaughter Pin that are not open yet that we don't have cut up, and so trails are here. They're different. There's a lot less canopy nowadays than what there was two weeks ago.

Nat Ross:

Yeah Well, you guys have been hard at work and hats off to all the volunteers and everybody that's been contributing.

Nat Ross:

So I would like to thank Erin Rushing he's the CEO of Trailblazers for joining this podcast today, and our hearts do go out to the families, all of the businesses that have been impacted by these storms, and we're so grateful for the first responders and the businesses that have been impacted by these storms, and we're so grateful for the first responders and the leaders that got us back on track, as well as all the volunteers that have been doing these trail days, contributing getting the castle back open and all the trails. So please don't forget, visit Bentonville is here to help you navigate the things you do, where you go, what you eat, where to stay, what you do when you're in this new American town. So give us a follow on social media, sign up for our newsletter and check out our website at visitbentonville. com. Erin, I'd like to thank you for joining us and it's been fantastic chat with you. Can't wait for some more time with you and your crew. Is there a top notch?

Erin Rushing:

Yeah, thanks man, it's been great. Yeah, thank you for having me.

Nat Ross:

You and the trailblazers have got, um, what I would say one of the better jobs, excluding this, uh, past couple weeks that you've been dealing with more than you need to.

Erin Rushing:

Thanks for joining us.

Nat Ross:

Thanks for all the listeners.