A Campaign for Land Acquisition to Complete the 303-Mile
Cumberland Trail State Park
You can help create the Cumberland Trail…
How?
The Cumberland Trail Conference is a 50lc3 nonprofit associate organization of the Tennessee Trails Association established in 1968 to build and maintain a statewide system of hiking trails in Tennessee. All of our work is funded by donations from individuals and grants from foundations and corporations.
There are several ways your donation can help the CT:
We are embarking on Phase II of the Pathways campaign and must raise $650,000 in private funds to purchase another four river gorges (6,000 acres) for the CT. Your donation can help us buy and protect these four privately-owned pocket wilderness areas for the Cumberland Trail. Your donation of $100.00 will leverage $400.00 in public funding…your donation of $500.00 will leverage $2,000.00 in public funding. You can make a two or three-year pledge for the Pathways campaign.
Where do I send my check/pledge card? Make your check payable to the Cumberland Trail Conference and mail to: 19 East 4th St., Crossville, TN 38555. Please indicate on your check whether it is for "Programs", "Pathways Campaign" or "Bridge Sponsorship."
We would like to thank the following foundations and corporations who have supported the Gorgeous Gorges campaign for the Justin P. Wilson Cumberland Trail State Park:
Foundations:
Corporations:
Your donation can help feed and house volunteers who donate their time to help build the Cumberland Trail and fund our Program Coordinator position. The 283-mile Cumberland Trail is being built entirely by volunteers (over 82,000 hours to date to build 135 miles of trail). The Conference provides free lodging (usually in a church camp or state park cabins) and the evening meal for trail volunteers as an incentive to recruit volunteers to help build the trail and make it easier for them to come work with us. We also have a full time Program Coordinator who plans, organizes, and leads the volunteer programs. CTC hosts over 120 days of volunteer trail programs each year, including a four-week Spring BreakAway Program with college students from across the nation, a six-week Big Dig Program in May/June, AmeriCorps teams, LandMark Volunteer Teams, American Hiking Society Volunteer Vacations, Scouts, Fall BreakAway, and more.
Over 2/3 of the 283-mile Cumberland Trail corridor lies on privately-owned land which must be purchased fee simple in order to permanently protect it and make it part of the Cumberland Trail State Park system. CTC has been engaged in a $3 million fundraising campaign, Pathways for People…People for Nature, for the past two years to raise private funds in order to match $18 million in public funding secured for land acquisition.
We are pleased to report that we have raised $1.75 million to date, which enabled us to purchase three entire river gorges encompassing 5,050 acres for the CT.
You can sponsor a small footbridge (12'-18') for $1,000.
You can sponsor a medium footbridge (20'-30') for $3,000.
You can sponsor a suspension bridge (50'-75') for $10,000.
An engraved plaque will be placed on the bridge acknowledging your gift "In Memory Of" or "In Honor Of" a person/group of your choosing.
A donation of $10,000 entitles you to membership in the Cumberland Trail One Mile Club (We're raising $3 million to build a 300-mile trail, which works out to $10,000 per mile).
Lyndhurst Foundation, Chattanooga
Lucille S. Thompson Family Foundation, Knoxville
Benwood Foundation, Chattanooga
Tonya Foundation, Chattanooga
Olan Mills Foundation, Chattanooga
W.L. Lyons Brown Foundation, Nashville
Atticus Trust, Nashville
Haslam Family Foundation, Knoxville
Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga
Sycamore Foundation, Knoxville
Merck Family Fund, Massachusetts
Chrysalis Foundation, Chattanooga
Maclellan Foundation, Chattanooga
William B. Stokely Jr. Foundation, Knoxville
Memorial Foundation, Nashville
Tucker Foundation, Chattanooga
Sulzburger Foundation, New York/Chattanooga
Robert and Monica Cole Foundation, Knoxville
Diane and Guilford Glazer Foundation, California
Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation, Nashville
Alexian Foundation, Chattanooga
Frist Foundation, Nashville
Alcoa Foundation, Maryville
BellSouth, Nashville
REI, Washington
Baptist Health Foundation, Knoxville
Federal Express, Memphis
L.P. Shanks Distributors, Crossville
Dana Corporation, Crossville
Bright-Martin Corp., Chattanooga
Newton Chevrolet, Chattanooga
Crossville Ceramics, Crossville
Hilliard Lyons, Kentucky
MTA Honda Distributors, Nashville
Brown-Forman (Jack Daniels)
CBRL Group (Cracker Barrel)
Suntrust Bank, Knoxville
Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Chattanooga
Exxon Mobil Foundation
Boeing Employees Community Fund, Oak Ridge
Chattem, Inc., Chattanooga
Kodak American Greenways, Virginia
Erlanger Medical Center, Chattanooga
BWXT Y-12, Oak Ridge
Plateau Insurance Group, Crossville
SVECares, Dunlap
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