Elkhart County is great at making things to move people.

Thousands of recreational vehicles, boats, and even motorcycles come together here so that people can travel with them.

Within the county, visionaries saw the possibilities in the abandoned Pumpkin Vine Railroad corridor and a rutted path along a Goshen canal to create some of the first and best paths in Indiana.

New trails have emerged over the years, but now it’s time to create a world-class trail system in a community known for how it helps people get moving through Connect in Elkhart County.

The Community Foundation’s Placemaking Committee is one of three groups of volunteers who award Community Investment Grants to make our community stronger. The Placemaking Committee’s goal is to improve the quality of place in Elkhart County by working with community partners to invest in our backyard. Several years ago, each granting committee narrowed its focus down to two significant priorities to concentrate efforts on making a more considerable impact in Elkhart County. The Placemaking Committee chose vibrant downtowns and parks and trails as priority areas.

The committee members quickly realized how much we have to learn about parks and trails when we started gathering the various transportation and parks plans. There have been 20 of them involving 19 organizations since 2010. Hundreds of people in our community have been engaged in those conversations and efforts.

The Community Foundation partnered with YARD & Co., an urban growth firm, to help guide our exploration of these relevant plans. In the year working with the foundation and community stakeholders, YARD & Co. produced an implementation guide. With this guide, the community can develop and execute a comprehensive mobility plan for Elkhart County.

Committed partners and agencies built trails that help Elkhart County residents and tourist move across our community. Additional trailmaking in this community of manufacturing industry trailblazers will require bringing more entities together and connecting the efforts.

We are on our way. Brittany Short agreed to join the effort as the project director. Brittany brings a wealth of experience to this role. Since 2011, she and her husband Spencer have owned and operated Pumpkinvine Cyclery in Middlebury.

And in 2020, Brittany stepped up as the president of the Friends of the Pumpkinvine board, the nonprofit entity that has overseen the development of the Pumpkinvine Nature Trail and the move toward completion.

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As a community, we can learn from the decades of work it took to craft the Pumpkinvine. Elkhart is building up its riverfront and the River District. Nappanee and Wakarusa are working on a trail connection. Middlebury is adding trails in addition to the Pumpkinvine.

So far, Elkhart County has 68 miles of bike lanes and trails. We aspire to be like other communities with more trails. Some involved in this effort have visited Greenville, South Carolina, where trails create a bike-friendly community.

We believe we can build a 130-mile network connecting many of the key communities with trails that provide safe and separate travel from roadways. In Elkhart County, the Community Foundation hopes to leverage several million dollars of funds with other government and private sources to build this network.

Connect in Elkhart County is an outgrowth of Vibrant Communities, an effort the Community Foundation helped fund with the Elkhart County Convention & Visitors Bureau to identify the projects that would enhance residents’ quality of life. “You can’t successfully argue the quality of life doesn’t affect your community,” said Goshen Mayor Jeremy Stutsman.

Stutsman and other local political leaders gathered in May to discuss involvement in Connect in Elkhart County. A meeting with planning staff members from the county, cities, and towns followed in July. A public launch is being planned for this fall.

“Some of the pieces are in place,” said Nappanee Mayor Phil Jenkins. “This effort will provide the overall vision. How do we all work together to make this happen?”

“If we are going to connect, now’s the time,” said Elkhart Mayor Rod Roberson.

This story appeared in the 2022 Annual Report.