Club News

Workers’ Walk Feb. 24th – cancelled!

The view in Pottawattamie County, IA at the beginning of the blizzard

Due to today’s blizzard, we are cancelling the Workers’ Walk scheduled for tomorrow, Sunday, February 24th. Stay home and use that energy to shovel out your driveways and sidewalks, so that walkers in your own neighborhoods can safely walk!

Support TWO great causes when you come to our Soup Walk, next Saturday, March 2nd at Children’s Square, N 6th St & Ave. E, Council Bluffs, IA 51502. The registration fee is two cans of soup AND $2 for Fun Walkers or $3 for Credit Walkers.

We donate one can of soup to a local food pantry and use the other can of soup to mix into our 2 big steaming hot pots of either chicken or beef broth based soups. Warm up after your 5k or 10k walk with a bowl or two of soup!

Try your luck at our raffle! Raffle proceeds will go to the annual fundraiser for the national organization to which we belong, AVA – America’s Walking Club. Without support from our national headquarters, we can’t bring you local walks.

And the Walker of the year award goes to . . .

Lee Frantz (right) receives the 2018 Walker of the Year Award

Our annual meeting and dinner was held Saturday, January 19th at Valentino’s Pizza south of 108th and L Streets in Omaha. The 2019 Officers were installed and the Walker of the Year award was given to Lee Frantz, club president in 2017 and recently installed as president for 2019.

From l to r: Jill Champley, Lee Frantz, Jeanne Miller, Tricia Abel

Just a reminder that our next club activity is our January 26th Meet and Eat (details here: https://www.nebraskatrailblazers.com/happy-new-year-of-walking/.   Club members can use the Westroads Mall Walk as part of their 2019 Incentive Program (details here: https://www.nebraskatrailblazers.com/announcing-our-2019-walker-incentive-program/

NWFT 2019 Walk booklet – just released!

EDIT January 8, 2019: Pie Walk date has been corrected in the booklet to be November 9th, rather than November 2nd.

Our 2019 Walk Booklet has just been released! Click on the link below to open it for viewing or for downloading as an Adobe Acrobat file (PDF format).

NWFT 2019 Walk Booklet

In order to print the booklet as it was designed, you’ll need a duplex printer. Open the booklet in Adobe Acrobat. Choose “Print”. Choose “Print on both sides of paper” and then “Flip on short edge”. See below for a screenshot of how this was done on a sample printer.


We’ll be adding more information on upcoming “Meet and Eats” as those walks are adopted and then scheduled, but the next one is coming up at Westroads Mall on Saturday, January 26th at 8:30. More information is available at https://www.nebraskatrailblazers.com/happy-new-year-of-walking/

Be sure to SAVE THE DATE for our Winter 2019 Spectacular, scheduled for Saturday, December 7th. We’ll be sure to let you know when and where!

Happy new year of walking!

It’s a brand new year, with brand new opportunities for walking for fun, fitness and friendship! We’re still putting the final touches on our 2019 brochure of walking events, but we want you to get these dates on your calendar now:

  • January 19th – Annual Meeting and Dinner (previously announced in https://www.nebraskatrailblazers.com/2019-annual-meeting-announcement/)
  • January 26th – Westroads Mall Meet and Eat, starting at 8:30 a.m., 5k or 10k option – all inside! Meet at the interior space between Dick’s and Penney’s, pay your $3 if walking for credit (stamping books) or $2 if not, walk and then eat together at Panera Bread in the mall.
  • March 2nd – Annual Soup Walk – Children’s Square,
     N 6th St & Ave. E, Council Bluffs, IA 51502 starting at 9 a.m. Register anytime between 9 and noon, off the trail by 3 p.m. Group Walk starting at 9:30. Bring 2 cans of soup (chicken or beef broth based) – one for the pot and one for the Food Pantry. Cost is $3 if walking for credit (stamping books) or $2 if not .

We’ve got the latest newsletter for you here, below, with lots to see from last year and a description of what’s coming up for next year. Have a great new year and we would love to see you soon!

NWFT Jan-Feb 2019 Newsletter

2019 Annual meeting announcement

2018 Annual Meeting – one table of walkers

The Nebraska Wander Freunde Trailblazers holds an annual meeting each year, where friends mingle, club officers are installed and the identity of the Walker of the Year is revealed. Plan now to attend this year’s meeting on Saturday, January 19, 2019, at Valentino’s Pizza, 5022 S 108th Street, Omaha, NE 68137 . Social time starts at 5:30; dinner (buffet-style) at 6:00 p.m. The meeting follows the dinner.

Club members pay only $12. Non-members pay $17. All should send in their reservations by January 12th to the club address: NWFT, PO Box 8147, Omaha, NE 68108. You can also pay Butch Spaulding at the event. Do be sure to drop Butch an email with the number attending so that we have enough tables and chairs set up . If you don’t have his email address, send it to netrailblazers@gmail.com, and it will be forwarded to him.

Announcing our 2019 Walker Incentive Program

2019 Walker Incentive Program

When you do our walks, do you stamp your book(s) for credit?  If you do, you’re going to LOVE our 2019 Walker Incentive Program.  Details below:

Request a card at any club meeting or traditional walk event.  The card can be carried with your AVA book.  You can earn up to four free walks per year.  Walk nine unique walks, either traditional events or year round events for CREDIT (do not repeat any of the walks) in your home club-NWFT or Greater Des Moines Volkssport Association (GDMVA).  Mark off the nine events you have done and you will get the 10th walk free. The walk must be redeemed at a traditional event or bring the card to a club meeting to redeem for a YRE.  After you redeem your first walk, you can walk nine more unique events (not repeating any of the walks).  You can now get credit for any events that are sanctioned by NWFT, GDMVA or the Lincoln Volkssport Club.  Bonus credit for walking Ogallala or North Platte-these two walks count as two walks each.  Drive a little and get double credit!  You can receive another free walk from NWFT or GDMVA by showing your card with the walks crossed off as you do them.  The card can be used four times.  If you walk any qualifying walks prior to receiving a card, you can cross them off of the card after you receive it by showing your AVA book entry. If you do an event at one of the other clubs prior to completing your first 9 walks, you can cross them off your card when you do them but cannot redeem them until you complete the first 9 events at your home club.

Not a book stamper? Consider our New Walker Program. For only $5, you get a Distance and an Event Book, coupons for 3 free walks, a patch and an issue of The American Wanderer, our national organization’s bi-monthly publication – all included!  Keep a record of all the great walks you’ve been on and log those kilometers as you walk them.

New Walker Books

New Walker Coupons

Night of Lights Walk 2018

Things to know about the Night of Lights Walk, December 2nd:

Two 5 km (3.1 mile routes) will be available.  New this year: a 1.5 mile stroller friendly walk!

Registration time is 4 to 6 p.m. at the Landmark Building at 13th & Farnam Streets in downtown Omaha.  Please plan to finish walking by 8:30 p.m.

Cost is $2 for Fun Walkers, $3 for Credit Walkers (book stampers) – cash only, exact change appreciated!

We are collecting toilet paper (wrapped), gloves, mittens, hats, scarves and men’s socks to take to two local homeless shelters.

Cookies and hot chocolate will be available after the walk.

Register to win one of over 100 door prizes with prizes for all ages.

November 2018

We just finished our Pie Walk on November 3rd and are getting ready for our Night of Lights Walk on December 2nd.  We’re busy at work planning our 2019 walks, starting in March with our annual Soup Walk at Children’s Square in Council Bluffs – more info coming in January about our 2019 season!

In the meantime, we have the November-December 2018 newsletter available.  Remember that club members receive the full newsletter directly as an email.

Our next walk is a Meet and Eat (group walk) on Friday, November 23rd at 10 a.m., starting from the Lansky’s at 1131 N Broadway, Council Bluffs, IA 51503. The plan is to #OptOutside and walk the 5k, then return to Lansky’s for lunch.  Lansky’s is the Start Point for our Council Bluffs Year Round Event and specializes in pizza, cheese steaks and pasta.

Our November club meeting featured a speaker from the Omaha Bee Club, a short business meeting and was followed by refreshments.  We do provide an orientation to visitors and new club members during the refreshments.  Here are scenes from that meeting. [rl_gallery id=”1456″]

Upcoming walks

The Lincoln Volkssport Club’s annual Wyuka Walk is still scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday, October 27th. Registration takes place at the City Impact Building, 1035 N 33rd St, Lincoln, NE 68503, from 8:45 a.m. to 11 a.m.  Fun Walkers are FREE; Credit Walkers (people who get their books stamped) pay $3. The LVC asks walkers to be off the trail by 1 p.m., so arrive early enough to enjoy this annual stroll through peaceful Wyuka Cemetery and surrounding neighborhoods.

The Workers’ Walk for the Rita Eldrige Memorial Pie Walk will be held on Sunday at 3 p.m.  Walkers should be advised that the restrooms will not be available before the walk and to arrive early enough to complete the registration process by 3 p.m. Two 5k loops will be featured.

The Blair Pie Walk on Saturday, November 3rd will honor the memory of Rita Eldrige, longtime Volkssporter and an integral member of the Nebraska Wander Freunde Trailblazers nearly since its beginning almost 40 years ago.  Bring a pie to share and registration fees and enjoy walking in Blair, Nebraska!  The registration point will be the Blair Police Department’s Training Center, right next to the police station at 1730 Lincoln Street. Registration will take place from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., off the trail by 3 (but if you come that late, the pies will be gone!) Registration is $1.50 for Fun Walkers and $3.00 for Credit Walkers.  We donate leftover pie to the New Visions Homeless Shelter in Council Bluffs.

Those wishing to walk as a group should plan to set out at 9:30 a.m. for one or both 5 kilometer loops.