Western Pennsylvania and the surrounding area are home to a growing network of non-motorized multi-use trails suitable for bicycle touring, hiking, and other outdoor activities. These trails provide valuable community resources for recreation, transportation, and social activities.  Most of these trails could not have been developed without support from many dedicated volunteers. These volunteers do everything from acquiring land to construction and maintenance to office tasks such as accounting and publishing newsletters.

When trail users say "They did a great job with this bridge" or "They ought to mow more often" or "They really explained this rock formation well" or "They should fix that erosion problem", 'They' is usually a group composed mostly of volunteers. We applaud these volunteers and their work, and we want to help keep them busy by providing tools, materials, and supplies that they need to get the job done.

We established the Trail Volunteer Fund of The Pittsburgh Foundation to provide grants to purchase tools, materials, and supplies to be used by volunteer trail projects that create, maintain, or enhance the trails suitable for bicycle touring in western Pennsylvania and interconnected trails in nearby areas. These projects may be sponsored either by trail organizations or by other groups. In this way the Fund celebrates and encourages the volunteers whose work has made such valuable contributions to western Pennsylvania's growing network of motor-free trails.

The Fund is designed for projects of a few hundred to perhaps a few thousand dollars, thus complementing the major grants available from other sources. Proposals are reviewed in March, June, September, and December, with a special cycle in May for 2008.  The application process is simple, requiring just a short explanation of the project and how the Fund's support will help.

The Fund's first grants were to the Montour Trail Council for safety improvements at the intersection of Routes 50 and 980 near Venice PA, to the Butler Freeport Community Trail for gates at road crossings to exclude vehicles from the section of trail being developed near Butler PA, and to the Butler Freeport Community Trail for a Girl Scout Gold Star project to install an interpretive sign near Herman.

We hope that over time the Fund's endowment will grow large enough to provide this kind of support for the indefinite future and to enable larger grants. To that end, the Fund welcomes contributions from other people, either directly or by shopping online through our merchant links.

For information not available on this web site, contact us.

Roy Weil and Mary Shaw
Pittsburgh, PA
December 2007

No worthy project with willing volunteers should founder for lack of tools or materials. The Trail Volunteer Fund of The Pittsburgh Foundation celebrates the efforts of the volunteers who are developing multi-use bicycle and walking trails by providing tools and materials they need for projects that develop and maintain the network of multiuse trails in western Pennsylvania and surrounding areas. Contact information  |   Press room  |   Privacy policy  |   Site map