Nonprofit Pure Midway works to preserve the rural character of Midway and the North Fields. The organization is launching an annual event known as Volksmarch.
Pure Midway’s Volksmarch event is meant to celebrate Midway’s heritage and help preserve its rural character. Board Member Kris Ward explains what a Volksmarch is.
“A Volksmarch is a European style walk, where people come together in communities to walk city to city trail to trail,” Ward continued. “They actually get an award for completing those trails. So, we're trying to revive the European history here in Midway; by creating this Volksmarch to preserve space”
The event will be on Saturday September 21st with registration beginning at 8:30 am.
“There’s a 5K and a 10K walk that’ll go through historic Midway up to Memorial Hill and back,” Ward explained. “We have a fun end of event where we’ll have lots of activities, games, and food. The most important feature will be the educational piece where we will have different conservancy groups there with booths to give people options of what they can do with their land.”
The annual event will also honor Midway residents. This year they’ll honor painter Robert Duncan.
“He has been a proponent of open space for many years and his paintings have captured the essence of Midways rural beauty that we're trying to save,” Ward said. “So, we're very very happy to have him with us this year to honor his work.”
Fellow board member Katie Noble says the event will be family friendly and celebrate Midway’s heritage.
“We’re going to have a DJ who will be playing some fun like polka music and pop music,” Noble continued. “We encourage people to wear their European attire with later hosen or dirndl dresses if they choose. Bring your walking sticks or you can buy them online on our website. One thing that's kind of fun with the Volksmarch is every year that you do it you get something called a stocknagel, which is a little medallion that is unique to the year of the event. You can put it on your walking stick and start a tradition of collecting the stocknagesl.”
Ward says the annual event will not only help preserve land, but also bring Midway community members together.
“Whether you’ve lived here for 50 years, or five years, everyone that's here loves and appreciate the rural beauty of Midway,” Ward explained. “We want people to come with a purpose of getting engaged with the rich history that is here and get engaged with ways that they can help preserve that for years to come for other generations. At the rate growth is going here in Midway right now, there may not be a whole lot of that left unless we consciously make an effort to do that.”
All proceeds from the Volksmarch event will be used to expand trails and preserve Midway’s rural spaces. For more information, including registration you can visithere.
