JANESVILLE
A stretch of the Ice Age Trail that is popular with runners, walkers and bicyclists could be the home of a new fitness project being launched by a group of local volunteers.
One team from the Leadership Development Academy of Rock County is raising money to build an exercise course at the Lexington Drive entrance of the Ice Age Trail near Palmer Park.
The group hopes to raise $15,000—enough to buy and install metal equipment for a 10-station stretching and exercise circuit that anyone who exercises on the popular section of the trail can use.
One of five teams in this year’s Leadership Development Academy class, the group is calling its effort
Team member Emily Hopper said her six-member group decided to tackle the project to help encourage people to use local trails to stay fit in the post-COVID-19 era.
“We thought about how in a post-COVID world, people really need the opportunity to be able to get outside,” she said. “So many gyms were shut down this year, and with mental health and physical health, everybody was affected so differently by COVID. We felt it was really important to do something to help and benefit Rock County people’s health.”
The project has received support from the Rock County Chapter of the Ice Age Trail Alliance and the Rock Trail Coalition, and Hopper said Janesville’s parks department has expressed interest in helping to install the equipment.
The would be made of metal, and some stations might feature raised platforms to allow people to do stretching and crunch exercises off the ground.
Other stations could feature two-person gliders that operate similar to cross country ski machines or elliptical exercise machines.
Hopper said the plan is to have the equipment produced in earthy tones of brown, tan and green to match the trail’s wooded environs. The circuit will be located in a wide spot off the Ice Age Trail near the trailhead, where Lexington Drive ends at Mohawk Road.
The work would begin later this year.
That section of trail runs northeast through wooded areas. To the southwest, it runs past Palmer Park, crosses Racine Street and continues past Rotary Botanical Gardens.
Depending on how much funding the group can raise, Hopper said members might try to build out a few stretching and exercise stations at different spots along the trail north and south of Racine Street.
The Leadership Development Academy’s director, Linda Ross, said the trail fitness project is one of five volunteer service projects that the academy’s teams are working on this year.
The nonprofit’s other service projects include:
- A sensory room being built at Project 16:49’s Robin House, a homeless shelter for teenage girls.
- A human-trafficking task force that plans to produce a film to increase awareness of human trafficking in Rock County
- A program in partnership with area social service agencies to assemble 50 birthday gift packages for local children in need.
- A butterfly garden and walking trail for children at Community Action of Rock and Walworth Counties’ Community Kids Learning Center on Janesville’s south side.
