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024 OSI Community Podcast - A River's Role in Redeveloping a Community
07/29/2022
024 OSI Community Podcast - A River's Role in Redeveloping a Community
When you think about infrastructure that supports outdoor recreation you might think of ski slopes, bike parks, and trails, but in Skowhegan, Maine these days the talk is all about a river park. This kind of infrastructure investment can be a decades long journey fraught with permitting issues, fundraising challenges, and the difficult work of building a shared vision amongst stakeholders. It’s impressive that any small community would take on such a vision, but what’s even more impressive in Skowhegan is that this vision is actually coming to life. Just this week Kristina Cannon, Executive Director of Main St. Skowhegan and leader of the Skowhegan River Park project, was notified that they’ve been awarded a $4.9 million dollar EDA grant to support construction of the park - a huge milestone for everyone involved. But what exactly is a river park? What does it mean for the community, and what impact do Kristina and others hope it will have? At the beginning of the summer we had the chance to sit down with Kristina to ask these questions and learn more. She shared some amazing insights including what she’s learned from returning home to central Maine to take on a leadership role in her community, her belief in outdoor recreation as a pathway for people to re-engage with each other, and how developing an unexpected passion for paddling has helped her rediscover her own backyard while giving her the fuel to consistently overcome the many obstacles she’s faced. Links In This Episode: The Outdoor Sport Institute & The OSI Community Our mission is to build resilience in people and communities through (human powered) outdoor recreation. We are a 501c3 non-profit organization. Through the OSI Community you can access a growing online resource library and a network of peers to connect with and share ideas.
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