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Friends of Madison County Parks & Trails

Who/What/Why

Who We Are

The Friends of Madison County Parks and Trails is a non-profit 501c3 organization staffed by an all-volunteer team dedicated to supporting the Madison County Park District and the City of London. Our primary goal is to complete and maintain the critical link of the Ohio to Erie Trail through Madison County as it goes from the Ohio River to Lake Erie.

What We Do

Our volunteers help maintain the bike trail in Madison County, have helped to prepare the trail for construction include disposing of rubbish, clearing and burning brush along the proposed trail corridor, and work with local authorities to help plan and coordinate construction logistics. We have reduced the cost of construction, resulting in more miles of paved trail, staffed information booths at various local events, kept the community informed of the benefits of the trail – all helping to make London a bicycle-friendly community.

We have a regular monthly meeting on the third Wednesday of each month at 6:00 pm at the Madison County Engineer’s Office Conference Room, 825 US 42 NE, London, Ohio 43140. (Please join us!)

Why We Do What We Do

“We are a local ‘army’ of dedicated volunteers who care about our community.” – GMA

We believe our efforts to enhance and maintain our little section of the wonderful Ohio to Erie Trail brings value to the city of London and to all of Madison County.
By striving to be one of rural Ohio’s nicest sections of the Trail, we want to help show visitors the beauty and welcoming charm of our community – from the lovely remnant prairie flora lining the trails to the helpful services to be found here to the heartfelt warmth of the people.

Your Help is Needed

Memberships help keep our all-volunteer efforts going. Join, or renew, today to help keep us going strong.
(We’re a non-profit 501c3, so it may be tax deductible!)
Click here to help… and thank you!

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    Around 2009, an idea first developed during a conversation between Wayne Roberts with FMCPT and Van Viney, CEO of MATCO Services. It took a while, but in 2019 work began in earnest to begin construction of a "welcome" area on the east side of London. This was envisioned to compliment our beautiful "welcome" on the west side of town, the Prairie Grass Trailhead with its camping area, shelter house, and many other amenities. The original vision to create a multi-panel mural using the bricked-in windows of the old tile factory building that MATCO now owned was expanded upon to include a mini-park, a respite with benches, pleasant landscaping, and more.

    Many local people have contributed many, many hours of brain power and sweat equity to bring this project from an old factory wall and overgrown grounds to the trail highlight it has become. We have kept costs extremely low though all of the in-kind donations and almost innumerable hours of donated labor. But also, we received great support support for the funding we required, all from Madison County-area companies and people. It was, and is, a true "community" project.

    An added benefit was realized a couple of years ago when we found that we could easily create access to Roberts Pass for MATCO clients and employees. They previously had found  handicapped-friendly trail access difficult if not downright impossible. For the first time, they are able to safely access their next-door neighbor, the Roberts Pass section of the Ohio to Erie Trail!

    Further value was gained when Michele Bouquet and Sue Cline joined our efforts bringing the wisdom of the Madison County Master Gardeners with them. They, and many of their cohorts, contributed tons of time developing and implementing a gorgeous native plants garden in our mini-park, along with several pollinator plant zones. We hope to build on the value of this by adding educational kiosks throughout the mini-park. We also plan to work with area groups, including the OSU Extension Center, on educational opportunities for local schools, seniors, etc.