Thanks to the many generous donations from our community, the BPWA board recently approved the purchase/installation of new handrails on two paths: Betty Olds and Tilden. Installation began in late May. In addition, we have a bid pending for Wilson Walk and we’re getting bids for four more paths—Stoddard, Shasta, Bret Harte, and Oak Street (West)—and are awaiting the vendor’s scheduling to come measure at the sites.

“The average cost to build and install a handrail is roughly $18,000, depending on the length, shape, and terrain of the path,” says BPWA Path-Building Lead Charlie Bowen. Each handrail is custom-built on-site; this involves auger-drilling the holes for the vertical posts and setting them at least two feet deep in concrete, after carrying many bags of Quikcrete along the steps. The top rail is curved as required for each path and welded onto the posts. Finally, the welds are sanded smooth, and loops are added at each end so people can grasp the handrail easily from the street.

High-quality handrails are essential to ensuring that Berkeley’s paths continue to be safe and accessible for everyone who wants or needs to use them. That’s why we’re always grateful to our many donors who make this work possible!

Last year our friend and Berkeley Community Media Executive Director David Flores, in collaboration with BPWA’s own Tamara Gurin and Past President Janet Byron, produced the 30-minute video “Paths Are Magic.” Created in honor of the 25th anniversary of Berkeley Path Wanderers Association, the video featured co-founder Jacque Ensign and several past presidents and founding board members.

We’ve just learned that the video won the Professional-Level Documentary category at the Western Access Video Excellence (WAVE) Awards, the west coast division of the Alliance for Community Media. The video will now move on to the national stage at the Hometown Media Awards this month. Great work, David, Tamara, and Janet, and fingers crossed for another award!

Our awards segment can be found here (at minute 11:40) and you can watch the full video here.

We’re looking for “a few good men” (and women) to lead walks—it’s a lot easier than enlisting in the Marines! As a BPWA walk leader, you’ll make new friends and get to know your neighbors better. You’ll develop strong leadership skills. And, best of all, you’ll have the enormous satisfaction of knowing that you’re doing something positive for your community. It’s also a great way to get your steps in and your heart rate up!

The training is pretty simple: As a new trainee, you’ll accompany an experienced BPWA leader as they lead a walk; they’ll explain how they plan a route, what they do for the safety and pacing of the walk, and what it takes to have a successful walk. The next step is for the trainee to lead a walk with the experienced leader assisting. There’s no set requirement for the number of walks each walk leader must lead.

If you’d like to learn more about getting involved, email walks@berkeleypaths.org.

BPWA has routinely posted its regularly scheduled walks on the Meetup site. Now there’s a lot of enthusiasm for the idea of hosting more spontaneous walks along Berkeley’s paths. Tamara Gurin, one of our walk leaders, is able to lead more frequent walks with shorter notice (three to seven days instead of a month before).

Stay tuned for more information on these Pop-Up Walks, both via BPWA member emails and on the Meetup site. In the meantime, if you’d like more information, email walks@berkeleypaths.org.

BPWA walk coordinators have received a request from a community member for help finding walking buddies in Berkeley. We will gladly match you to a walking partner(s) if you email the following information to walks@berkeleypaths.org:

• Your name

• Preferred day and time you plan on walking   

• Desired distance and pace (miles/hour)

• Maximum number of people in the group

Please be aware that your email address will be shared with those who have matching interests.