Today we’d like to introduce you to Mary Charles Howard.
Hi Mary Charles, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
After four years of being frustrated with a lack of safe cycling and economic opportunities in her small town, I decided to take matters into my own hands in 2019, starting the Georgia Hi-Lo Trail. After seeing the success of Athens’ own Firefly Trail, I decided to build on the great work of that trail by extending Firefly Trail’s original 39-mile trail south another 200 miles with the Georgia Hi-Lo Trail ~ through Sandersville and beyond, ending in Savannah.
Immediately after launching the Georgia Hi-Lo Trail, I started Kids Bike League, a program of the Hi-Lo Trail that gets kids ages 2nd – 6th grade on a bike in rural communities in middle, east and coastal Georgia. Kids Bike League was paused in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid, but in November 2021 received a grant from the Chestnut Family Foundation to expand the kid’s bicycle program. In 2022, Georgia Hi-Lo Trail partnered with Atlanta’s BRAG (Bike Ride Across Georgia) Dream Team’s coaching staff to bring their expertise of over 30 years of coaching kids on bikes to rural Georgia.
Kids Bike League currently operates monthly rides, summer camp and winter camp in four rural Georgia towns.
Over the past 2-years during Covid and while expanding Kids Bike League, we’ve raised the funding needed to begin the Georgia Hi-Lo Trail master planning process with PATH Foundation. This master plan will include the 8-county trail region from Union Point in Greene County all the way to Savannah including many small towns in between! This master planning process will spell out the benefits of the Hi-Lo Trail to the citizens of east-central Georgia. We will define where the trail will go, what it will look like at different locations, how much it will cost, and provide strategies for making it happen.
The Georgia Hi-Lo Trail starts its master planning process this year. We’ll start the master planning process with PATH in March 2023 and aim to complete a final plan in August. This will enable us to be prepared to apply for grants like the Georgia DNR’s Recreational Trail Program (RTP) and the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Program (GOSP), whose application submissions are due this fall.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Fundraising during Covid for the master plan wasn’t easy. Having to cancel Kids Bike League for two years during Covid was difficult too, as we knew the kids needed the activity! I did take over the Athens to Savannah Ride in 2019 with my first ride I was in charge of happening in October 2020. We kept the event small in 2020 due to Covid, which helped with logistics on my first year of organizing. This year’s Athens to Savannah Ride in October 2023 already has 75 cyclists registered, so this will be our biggest growth year yet suprassing 100 riders for a 4-day, 285-mile bike ride from Athens to Savannah.
As a nonprofit, funding is always a challenge. I’m a landscape architect turned nonprofit leader, so fundraising and donor relations has been a HUGE learning curve.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
People seem to gravitate towards the HUGE vision of the Georgia Hi-Lo Trail and the grassroots work we’re doing with Kids Bike League.
We take the path less traveled…
Georgia Hi-Lo Trail Vision:
Connect two trail projects to form a 250-mile paved, road-separated path through small Georgia towns from Athens to Savannah.
1) Firefly Trail – begins in Athens and will end in Union Point, a distance of 39 miles when completed. Firefly Trail, Inc. began their work in 2007 and have been true “trail blazers” across small communities in Georgia.
2) Georgia Hi-Lo Trail – will connect to the Firefly Trail in Union Point and continue on to Savannah – a 211-mile stretch through rural Georgia.
Personally, some of the recent achievements have been:
1) Recipient of a $450,000 Chestnut Family Foundation grant to get underrepresented kids on bikes across Georgia with the Georgia Hi-Lo Trail’s Kids Bike League program in November 2021. As a result of this grant, coached 220 kids on how to ride a bike across Georgia in 2022 and continues in 2023.
2) Innovation Summit speaker at Trek Bikes’ headquarters in Waterloo, Wisconsin (September 2022) about her startup nonprofit Georgia Hi-Lo Trail.
3) I actually ride my bike myself with the cyclists on the Athens to Savannah Ride. As a mom of three young kids, I don’t have much time to train. Being able to participate in this 4-day bike ride (which I opt for the gravel ride – taking dirt roads from Athens to Savannah) shows others who are “on the fence” about participating because of the percieved difficulty level – that if I can do it, almost anyone can do it!
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
Family. I started this trail to go through my small hometown and other small hometowns because I want a safe space for my kids to be able to ride. As a mom, I also need a safe space to ride my bike with my kids or alone, without the fear that I may be hit by a car. The Georgia Hi-Lo Trail will be a road-separated 12-foot wide trail that allows all of this to be possible. Once the trail is created through these small towns, it will also give incentive for the next generation to move back home. The trail will re-energize the economies and heart of our small Georgia towns with vitality and “experience economy” options. With the internet coming to rural Georgia and housing prices being much less, people can live in a great rural setting while working from home with great internet, then step outside and hop on the Georgia Hi-Lo Trail for a safe lunchtime walk, after-work bike ride or week-long adventure!
Pricing:
- $195 for road or gravel ride Athens to Savannah Ride
- $95 for one-day Athens to Savannah Ride
- $500 to donate a bike in honor or memory of a loved one to Kids Bike League
Contact Info:
- Website: georgiahilo.com, athenstosavannah.com, kidsbikeleague.org
- Instagram: @hellogeorgiahilo, @athens_to_savannah, @kidsbikeleague_ga
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/georgiahilo, https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086107232123, https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100085379867277
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_dVxT7wZvcugUFE2z7FyWA
