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Thank you for being part of our walking group! I’ve recently received 4 letters of support for the program, so I wanted to give you all a more detailed update than a simple “thanks for letting us know.”
As you have heard, we are taking a break for the Winter Season (December, January, and February). We decided this for a couple of reasons.
First, we no longer have the funding to support our monthly walking group. Over the last four years, we used to receive an annual $3,000 grant from Beaumont Health to support our healthy initiatives. Our healthy initiatives programs included our monthly Walking Group, Summer Yoga, and various Fitness Challenges from 2020-2023 (all of these programs were offered by us to guests for free). We also used these funds for our Summer Saturday hikes.
Beaumont Health merged with Corewell Health, and while we did receive a grant the first year of the merger, Corewell Health stopped the grant program in 2024. Seeking new funding resources, we gratefully received $750 from the Troy Community Foundation which helped fill the gap, but it was not enough to financially support our ability to continue to provide these programs for free.
You may have noticed that we didn't do any Fitness Challenges or Summer Saturday hikes this past year, and that we had significantly fewer Museum Yoga sessions, too. We are sad to not be able to offer these programs right now because we know they are well loved, but, unfortunately, we do not have the funding. This was something Stephanie and I had talked about this past summer, but we hadn't made any official decisions until we began planning the Dec-Jan-Feb program schedule.
Second, with Stephanie's departure from the Village, now is a good time to put the program on hold. Walking Group and other Healthy Initiative programs have been one of the "extra passions" that Stephanie brought with her to her job at the Village. Other staff members bring a passion for theater, science, or woodworking, but Stephanie was our health and fitness guru! While these programs haven’t completely aligned with our mission at the Troy Historic Village, we’ve been happy to have Stephanie explore them with grant support. When Stephanie decided to take another position, it made sense to take a break and wait to see if the next person would hold the same interests or different ones. It would also give us some time to look at funding options.
As you all know, Walking Group is a program we have offered for free; we are super proud of that, and grateful for Stephanie's efforts. It does, however, cost the Village $75-$100 in paid staff time per walk (researching and planning locations, creating monthly schedules, updating our website, creating social media posts, communicating with the group, and taking the walk itself). Considering all the work and cost it takes to provide the program over the course of one year, we have regularly exceeded the $3,000 annual grant we were receiving. We justified the additional cost because we had hoped folks in the Walking Group would purchase annual memberships with the Village, or otherwise make annual donations, unfortunately, very few have.
So, what next?
Our new Adult Program Director started only a few weeks ago, and as they get to know the Village and the programs, we will decide if we will be continuing our Healthy Initiatives programs. They have already started looking for new grant sources, but if none are found it might simply not be financially viable for us to continue.
We have also been in contact with Troy Recreation to see if they could take over our Walking Group program. We feel the walking group better aligns with their mission in the community and they may work it into their funding sources.
If that isn't possible, we would be happy to pass on information and offer a way for people to opt into a new email list if someone from the Walking Group would like to continue organizing the weekly walks.
We are so glad that the Walking Group has become a fun, healthy community! We are also glad and thankful that Matthew has been able to take the lead for the October and November walks. Thanks, Matthew!!
I know this was a lot of information, but I hope it was helpful as we look at the best way forward!
Sincerely,
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