KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Legacy Parks Foundation celebrated its latest achievements Friday afternoon with brilliant sunshine, a huge crowd and funny and inspiring comments from a special return guest -- Cheryl Strayed.
The tented "Legacy Luncheon for the Parks" was held at the bucolic 1,000-acre Strong Stock Farm along the banks of the Holston River in East Knox County. The farm has been continuously worked since the 1790s and features Black Angus cattle that are descendants of the original stock from all those years ago.
More than 1,000 people attended the foundation's annual fundraiser.
Legacy Parks Foundation Executive Director Carol Evans announced, as part of an update on the organization's activities, that it had raised $1.3 million to create the French Broad Veterans Memorial Park in East Knox County.
Construction on the 7-acre park is supposed to start next year.
Evans said Legacy Parks also is creating a 1.5-mile trail called the SoKno Rail Trail in South Knoxville, and there are plans for a new trail at West Hills Park.
Another project: Making the French Broad River more accessible to all paddlers including those with physical challenges.
Legacy Parks is working with Knox County, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and the Tennessee Valley Authority to update the boat ramp at Cruze Landing with a fully adaptive boat dock for all kinds of paddle craft.
The goal is to eventually install docks that are fully adaptive "all the way to downtown Knoxville," she said.
Strayed served as keynote speaker. It's the second time the author of "Wild" has headlined the luncheon.
"Wild" recounts Strayed's story of hiking solo more than 1,000 miles along on the Pacific Crest Trail. Actress Reese Witherspoon appeared as Strayed in the movie.
"What I hope people walk away with is the sense that they can keep walking through whatever challenge comes their way, and we both know challenges come our way, and venturing out is the way to hike a trail. It's also the way to live life," she told WBIR.
