GRACE trail opens at Alpine Shores Park

One of two unique trails opened to the public Aug. 26, with the particular trail adding some depth to an otherwise undeveloped truck.

With Shawano Pathways, ThedaCare and other community partners, the city of Shawano opened its GRACE (Grateful, Release, Acceptance, Challenge, Embrace) trail at Alpine Shores Park on the north end of the community. Another one is opening in the Navarino area.

“It’s just been a great project of collaboration and absolute excitement,” said Matty Mathison, who spearheaded the project on behalf of Pathways.

The ¾-mile trail not only provides another recreational opportunity for the community, but it also provides a source of healing as it helps people who have lost a loved one or are at risk of losing someone. Mathison could sympathize, noting how the COVID-19 pandemic gave her a scare when her 96-year-old mother was diagnosed with the virus in November 2020.

“I did two daily window checks on her every single day and reported how she was to my eight siblings and to all of the people who were concerned about her health and safety,” Mathison said. “On Thanksgiving Day, two weeks later, she felt well enough to have something to eat, despite the fact that, before that, she was very, very sick.”

Mathison noted that visiting her mother in person wasn’t an option at the time, so she ordered Thanksgiving dinner for two and sat outside her mother’s home in 40-degree temperatures eating cold turkey. Mathison’s mother, who the daughter described as a “stubborn Norwegian” survived COVID-19, and the word that came to her from the experience was “grateful,” and she came home to read her mail and learned about GRACE trails.

“This was what I needed in my life,” Mathison said. ”I have no doubt this is what other people need in their lives. When I realized how significant this trail could be for our community, I decided I wanted to create two of them.”

Once Mathison was able to secure funding, she went to Matt Hendricks, park and recreation director for the city. Hendricks said he didn’t know what a GRACE trail was, but once he learned about it, he tried to figure out a way to get it to fit in Shawano.

“This park was established when this residential plat was dedicated decades ago,” Hendricks said. “For decades, this park has sat here and been a wooded area. All by itself, that’s fine, as environmental protection comes through parks and natural areas.”

Hendricks noted there were plans to have a wooded walking area at Alpine Shores long before Mathison walked into his office, but once she came in, he felt like the GRACE trail was meant to be. He also expressed his appreciation to ThedaCare, which contributed $10,000, $5,000 per trail, to the project.

“After that, things just fell into place,” Hendricks said.

Paula Morgan, ThedaCare director of community health, noted that the project’s existence was due more to the people committed to making it happen that it did from her organization’s monetary donation.

“This community has such an incredible wealth of talent, of passion, of people who want to continually improve,” Morgan said. “This is the kind of work we’re trying to do across all of the communities that we serve across nine counties. If we had people like you in every one of the communities we’re serving, thinking about how to make this community better — mostly to keep people healthy in the first place — this GRACE trail is a perfect example of where we want our community to go.”

Mayor Bruce Milavitz agreed that having organizations and people willing to help on projects like the trail is a good thing.

“When we talk about gratefulness, we’re grateful for these community partnerships going on,” Milavitz said. “I look back in 1996 and 1997 with my young family at the time, and we were looking for a community to move to, and I am so fortunate that this is the one community that stood out. Now, to look at what it’s growing into in 2021, it’s fantastic.”

lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com