“A trail like this has such far-reaching impact that you need to look at what this does for the economic life of a community.” — Keith Christensen ’80
There’s a grant for that
A leap of faith and great timing
That’s when Andy Anderson ’87 said, “Think bigger.” Anderson, who was working for the state of Iowa, had heard about the original loop concept and thought it sounded tailor-made for a Vision Iowa Community and Attraction Tourism (CAT) grant. As Hjelle recounts, “Until the Trout Run Trail, the Vision Iowa CAT grants had funded museums, municipal parks, and the restoration of historic sites. They’d kicked in money here and there for swimming pools. Few of those things were as big a tourism draw as this was.” Because Vision Iowa requires proof of broad-based local support before it commits to a project, the Decorah trail advocates had to keep their funding intact and delay work on the trail in favor of applying for the CAT grant. The group’s patience was rewarded: in 2006, the Trout Run Trail project was prepared to accept a whopping $1.5 million Vision Iowa CAT grant—the largest single grant awarded to the Trout Run project throughout its 12 years of construction. Before the trail group officially received the offer, however, it hit upon the idea of asking Vision Iowa to increase the grant by a percentage to enhance the trail with public art and simultaneously raise extra money by selling naming rights for that art. The grant panel concurred and contributed an extra $100,000. “That $1.6 million was a huge pivotal point of our project because we were validated by the state of Iowa,” says Mike Huinker, husband of Kim (Pilgrim) Huinker ’82 and father of Hannah ’08, Lydia ’09, and Dane ’13.
While the CAT grant was a strong start, the grant alone didn’t ensure success. Vision Iowa generally funds no more than 25 percent of a project, which meant that most of the money for the burgeoning trail had to be found elsewhere. This is the point at which an intrepid team of grant proposalwriters and fundraisers put pens to paper and knuckles to doors to raise more than five million additional dollars, including an incredible $1.2 million—about 20 percent of the total cost—from local donors. “There was a real leap of faith we had to take without having all the funding in hand,” says Kirk Johnson ’82, Luther associate director of alumni relations. “We had a good start with the CAT funding, but we still didn’t have all the other trail grants in a row to make the project happen without the city and county having to pony up with the cash. We had to keep raising money and having faith that over the long haul we would get project funding.” The fundraising and grant proposalwriting group—which included, among others, Johnson, Keith Christensen ’80, Mike Harman ’87, Harlan Satrom ’82, Lora Friest (wife of D. J. Friest ’90), Mark Donhowe ’70, Larry Grimstad (father of Joe Grimstad ’98), Paul Hudson (father of Megan Hudson ’14), and Jerry Freund (husband of Ann Highum, former Luther dean and vice president for student life)—had to think strategically to continue to bring in money. They applied to a governor’s program called Iowa’s Great Places, which led to a significant cash infusion. “After we became an Iowa Great Place,” Johnson explains, “it became easier to garner more and more small grants to
Engineers decided that a post-tension concrete bridge was the best way to cross Highway 9. While post-tension bridges are more expensive than many others, they last longer, require less maintenance, and—owing to their design, which involves overstretching cables before securing them in place—they’re incredibly sturdy.
The works of public art that adorn the trail went through a competitive selection process. A panel used weighted votes to narrow a pool of several dozen qualified artists to a list of 10 favorite proposals. Donors were then invited to bid on naming rights for their favorites among these, and the three highest bids determined which artworks would have a presence on the trail. Above, Walking with Birds, by Doug Freeman ’75.
Fall 2012 Luther Alumni Magazine
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