Pair receive award from greenways group
EAST BRADY, Clarion County — East Brady residents Toni and Marty Henry received the Richard M. Garrard Greenways Neighbors of the Year Award for their very active involvement since 2007 in numerous projects and organizations geared to expand and enhance outdoor recreational opportunities in their vicinity and the region.
The award was presented by the Council on Greenways and Trails made up of trail-owning organizations and municipalities in Venango, Clarion and Crawford counties.
The Henrys were scheduled to receive their award at a ceremony Saturday morning in the Creekside Pavilion in Oil City's Hasson Park.
According to the council, the Henrys live just one block from a trailhead of the Armstrong Trail on the east bank of the Allegheny River. The Henrys are also leaders within the East Brady Area Development Corp. and helpers for the Erie to Pittsburgh Trail Alliance.
Toni Henry said, “My husband and I lived in Pittsburgh for 35 years before we moved into his grandmother's old house (at 901 Purdum St.) in 2007.”
“We were avid bicyclists” she said, noting she had biked from Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C., several times when they lived in Pittsburgh.
“The Armstrong Trail between Phillipston and East Brady was not finished. The last couple of miles were really rough,” she said.
The Henrys worked to complete the trail into East Brady and are still volunteers with Armstrong Trails, the organization formed by the merger of the Armstrong Rails to Trails Association and the Allegheny Valley Land Trust.
Marty Henry said he grew up in East Brady, graduated from Slippery Rock University and spent 36 years as a physical education teacher in Pittsburgh before moving back to his hometown.
“We really bonded with Rails to Trails,” he said.
“We dedicated our retirement to expanding our relations with other communities, connecting the dots, trying to put East Brady on the map,” he said.
The award they received was named after Richard Garrard, he said, the mayor of Foxburg.
“He was a good trail neighbor. We knew him pretty well,” he said.
Marilyn Black, the treasurer of the Council on Greenways and Trails, nominated the Henrys.
“It's to advocate for the continued availability of public use for outdoor recreation and also for the preservation of natural, human and cultural resources,” said Black of the council's mission.
Other award winners recognized Saturday included Cranberry in Venango County and the Lyona Bible Church Youth Group.
The youth group members, made up of teens from Guys Mills in Crawford County, for three consecutive years have cleaned and waxed more than 20 outdoor interpretive panels that constitute the Titusville Walking Tour.
The township was recognized for its maintenance of Morrison Park, Moody Park and Pond, the Samuel Justus Trail, the Allegheny River Trail trailhead on Route 322 and a primitive camping area adjacent to the Allegheny River Trail.
