First Night Trail Walk to Celebrate 4th Year

The annual First Night Trail Walk, a fundraiser for the Friends of the Holliston Trails (www.hollistontrails.org), celebrates its fourth year this year, with the walk beginning at 5 p.m. The children’s walk will start from Cross Street, while the Main walk will begin from Blair Square, says Ed Daniels, of the Friends of the Holliston Trails.
“It’s a free event. We like to pitch it as an early New Year’s Eve celebration, to see all your neighbors before you watch the ball drop in the night,” says Daniels, who says he estimates that 1,500 people came last year. In fact, Holliston in Bloom, who hosted one of 22 fire pits last year and handed out cider, handed out 650 cups of it last year.
Daniels says that absolutely anyone can host a fire pit.
“We want to know citizens to know they can host a fire pit along the way,” says Daniels. “Community groups are doing it to participate, but they’re also doing it to raise funds for the trail. But neighborhood groups are also welcome. Anyone who wants a fire pit can participate by hosting a free fire pit along the way and essentially can give out s’mores or hot cider or anything else they feel is appropriate, or just say hello to their friends.” There is no cost associated with hosting a fire pit, although the Friends of the Holliston Trails will be asking for donations that night.
“It’s pretty laid back as to what they have to do at their own fire pit,” says Daniels. “Really it would be just signing up with our group to host one.” The more fire pits, he says, “the more festive the event’s going to feel.”
The friends group will not be selling anything this year, as a few years ago, the night was so cold that flashlights they sold wouldn’t work. “We ask for donations along the trail, so when you’re first starting the trail walk, it would be great if each participant could plan on donating at the beginning of the walk. We’ll have donation jars,” says Daniels.
Holliston Boy Scouts also help out at the event by serving hot dogs and cider at Phipps Tunnel.
Any money raised from the New Year’s Eve celebration will benefit The Friends of the Holliston Trails, which in turn supports improvements on the trail. The group would love to spread the word that volunteers are extremely welcome.
“The Holliston Rail Trail is used by many people, but I don’t think a lot of citizens know that we would love their assistance as part of the group, because the small number of events we do each year would be a lot easier to run if we had more volunteers as part of the group,” says Daniels, who says that just a skeleton crew of about 4-5 people run events, and only about 10 members regularly attend meetings.
“We’re welcoming of people joining the group and using their skills to assist us in any way they can,” says Daniels. “Volunteers would be everything from people who have experience with websites or who would like to get involved with participating in our two events, which is the first night event and also the 5K trail run. We try to do events that don’t take a lot of heavy lifting. This trail walk, for example, could be done to a crazy expense, or it could be what it has been, which is simply, people come out and walk the trail. It’s a pretty easy job.”
Most of the expenditures made by the Friends of the Holliston Trails has supported safety on the trails, such as crosswalks and signage at the cross walks and railings on the bridges. The group also recently contributed $11,000 toward surface materials. In the future, improvements will be made on the part of the trail that was recently acquired, up to the Sherborn line. That will include improvements to the 8-Arch Bridge area, says Daniels.
“That whole 2-mile stretch of land that needs to be improved also includes the 8-Arch Bridge,” he says. “The Friends of the Holliston Trails is a support in the Trails Committee and the work that they do.”
The group has also been in a committee that is working on developing plans to make Blair Square into more of a park, with overall improvements to that area, says Daniels.
“Bobby Blair, Holliston in Bloom and the Marigold Project has done a terrific job over there of creating that space,” says Daniels, who says that the bigger project will ultimately improve parking, lighting and the surface of the rail trail to develop the area into more of a gathering space. All of that, he says, is really still in the development and planning stage.
You can find out more becoming a member of the Friends of the Holliston Trails by looking for Friends of the Holliston Trails on Facebook, or by visiting www.hollistontrails.org. Just want to make a donation? Both of those sites, says Daniels, are equipped with easy donate links.
Overall, says Daniels, who sells real estate, features like the Holliston Rail Trail “add value to the town. I notice it in my clients. They love the community feel and all the different activities that go on.”