Traditional Events – Page 8 – Nebraska Wander Freunde Trailblazers

February – Save the Dates!

From Club President Sandy Spaulding:

Monthly Meeting – Monday, February 1 at 7 p.m. Our monthly meeting will be at Morningstar Lutheran Church. We will have a speaker discussing Air Quality. Come to hear what can keep us breathing better. With the weather forecast, remember that the meeting will be cancelled if school is cancelled.

Shelby Soup Cook Off – Saturday, February 6 from 5-7 p.m, Cardinal Lofts (old school gym) at 304 Western Ave, Shelby, IA. Cost last year was $6 per person for all the soup you can eat. Very yummy and a lot of fun. They also hold a raffle and our group has won a lot of prizes in the past few years. We like to support this event as it provides funds for the Stone Arch Trail which we use for our Shelby year round event. We will carpool to this event so let me know if you would like to ride or drive.

Des Moines Skywalk – Saturday, February 13, start times 8-12, finish by 3. Start point is in the Kaleidoscope at The Hub Food Court (third floor), 555 Walnut, Des Moines, IA. There are two trails available, one entirely in the skywalk and another outdoors. Pets are not allowed in the skywalk system. If there is interest, we may carpool to this event. Butch and I will not be able to attend, but let me know if you want to carpool or drive and I will pass the information along.

Westroads Group Walk – Saturday, February 20. Meet near the children’s play area between J C Penney and Dick’s Sporting Goods at 7:45 so we can start walking at 8 a.m. We will have the walkbox there for registration.

New faces, new places!

Welcome to our 2016 Club Officers, shown in the picture here at our December club meeting. These are the smiling faces you’ll see at our meetings, events and walks. Be sure to say “Hi!” to Tricia, Larry, Sandy and Butch when you see them. Thank you to our 2015 club president, Mel, and we’re looking forward to his return to walking when he’s feeling better.

At the December club meeting, we closed out our voting for our 2015 Walker of the Year. And the winner is . . . to be announced at our Annual Meeting, to be held this year at Valentino’s, 5022 S 108th St, Omaha, NE 68137. Cost for members is only $10; non-members pay $13.59. Neither price includes a tip, so bring a couple of bucks for those hard-working servers. The date is Saturday, January 23rd. Social time starts at 5:30, dinner at 6, and the short business meeting at 7 p.m.

We are lining up carpools for the January and February events in Des Moines, a mall walk and a skywalk, respectively, so it will be good walking weather (inside). A group walk of the Westroads Mall Walk (a year-round) is set for Saturday, February 20th at 8 a.m. Our first “traditional” event of the year is scheduled for March 5th in NW Omaha, our April event in Bellevue, and our May event at Prairie Queen Recreation area, west of Werner Park in Papillion. Come join us for some new places to walk in 2016!

Pie Walk – Workers’ Walk

A few of us got together this morning to do the Pie Walk Workers’ Walk, scheduled for November 7th at Morning Star Lutheran Church, 221 S. 85th Ave., Omaha, starting at 9 a.m. Both the 5k and the 10k walks go through established, tree-lined neighborhoods, while the 10k goes to and up the Keystone Trail for a ways. We found a shortcut, if you need one!

Need a walking buddy for this walk? Got one, two, or three . . .

We need volunteers at the Start/Finish Table, workers to staff the checkpoint along the 10k route and folks to greet people and be walking buddies. Bring some pie to share – we’ll have some volunteers to help eat them!

Or, if you like to read while you’re walking, check out the Little Free Library on the route!

What to do if there isn’t a walk scheduled? Walk, of course!

We don’t have regular walks scheduled this next weekend, so why not take advantage of one of our year round walks? Also, two workers’ walks are coming up (remember to show up early to take care of all the paperwork and that restrooms may not be available):

1) Sat. 10/24 at 9 a.m. for the Pie Walk at Morning Star Lutheran Church, 331 S. 85th Ave, Omaha , NE 68114. Date of the actual walk is November 7th starting at 9 a.m.

2) Sun. 10/25 at 3 p.m. for the Lincoln Volkssport Club’s Wyuka Cemetery Walk. The Lincoln club reports that they are very short on volunteers for the walk on Halloween. Email us and we’ll get the word to our neighbor club! The actual event is scheduled for October 31st, starting at the Wyuka Cemetery Stables, 3600 ‘O’ Street, Lincoln, NE, registration from 8:45 to 10:15 a.m., off the trail by 12:15 p.m. due to a limited rental agreement. And yes, the Huskers play at 11 a.m. but in West Lafayette, Indiana, so traffic won’t be a problem!

On Walks and Walkers

We had a great turnout at our September 12th Breakfast Walk at Zorinsky Lake. The weather was perfect, the route was great and the food was plentiful. Special thanks go to Lee Frantz and Donna Campbell for sponsoring this walk and sharing it with 69 people.

Sandy Spaulding has laid out a great route for our Magic City Walk (aka South Omaha) on October 3rd, starting at El Museo Latino at 9 a.m. Workers are needed to staff the Start Point, the 3 Check Points and to greet folks and/or to walk with them. If you’d like to volunteer, don’t worry about getting to do the walk. The Workers’ Walk will be Saturday, September 26th at 9 a.m. Come a little early to do paperwork, but remember that the museum will not be open early that morning and bathrooms will not be available there or generally on the route that day. To volunteer, let Butch or Sandy Spaulding know via email.

Speaking of volunteers, it’s time to nominate our 2015 “Walker of the Year”. Any club member can be nominated. Submit your nominations with a brief write-up to Butch Spaulding by October 15th, so that the nominations can be published in our Nov-Dec newsletter. We’ll be trying out a new system for voting this year, so that all club members can participate, even if they can’t make the December club meeting.

Coming up in September

The ever-popular Breakfast Walk will take place at Zorinsky Lake, near 156th and F Streets, on Saturday morning from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. on September 12th. Walkers should be off the 5k or 10k trails by 2 p.m. Those coming later in the morning should count on eating before they head out on the trail. Please bring a ready-to-eat breakfast item to share – no cooking facilities are available. Fun walkers pay $1.50, while those wanting AVA/IVV Credit pay $3.

The club’s September meeting will take place on Monday, September 14th, a week later than our usual 1st Monday, due to the Labor Day Holiday. We’ll have speakers from Restoration Exchange of Omaha to give us some South Omaha history in preparation for our October walk. These speakers are fantastic and are a must-hear! Meetings take place at 7 p.m. at Morning Star Lutheran Church at 311 S. 85th St. (near Methodist Hospital). Our speakers will talk during the first portion of the meeting for 15 – 30 minutes, followed by a brief business meeting and will close with refreshments.

July and August Activities

A capacity crowd of 20 showed up at Ted and Wally’s in Omaha’s Old Market on Monday, July 13th. Participants report that it was a “tasteful” experience.

Club members Butch and Sandy Spaulding organized a spontaneous group walk of the Bennington Lakes Year Round walk on Saturday, July 18th. A total of 7 folks enjoyed the gardens at the Start Point, and beat most of the day’s heat by walking early in the day. Want a walking partner for any of our year rounds? Send us an email at netrailblazers@gmail.com and we’ll put the word out!

Our next scheduled club activity is a group walk of the Ashland Year Round on Saturday, August 15th at 8:30 a.m. Save some time in your schedule to have lunch at Cheri O’s and/or a visit to the SAC Museum nearby! The organizer for this event is club president Mel Bohn, who can be reached by personal email or by the club email at netrailblazers@gmail.com.

Our regular season of Traditional or Regular Events begins in September. If you didn’t get flyers for our first 4 walks of the season, let us know! More information to be posted in September.