Pathfinders for Greenways

Pathfinders for Greenways was incorporated in 1997 to be a non-profit organization to involve citizens in the development of the greenway network of both paved paths and natural surface trails. Pathfinders provides a forum for involvement of volunteers, coordination of work days, greenway promotional events, and fundraising. Pathfinders volunteer work crews are particularly effective in building and maintaining natural surface trails in cooperation with area localities. As a result, Pathfinders supporters donate between 3,000 to 5,000 hours of volunteer service each year and have purchased over $150,000 worth of trail building tools and equipment.

Another successful component of Pathfinders is raising funds to donate to area localities to help offset costs for securing right of way, engineering, construction and land acquisition associated with paved greenway projects. For example, Pathfinders purchased and donated the land for the Hinchee Trail to Roanoke County in 2019, donated funds for engineering of the bridge at Barnhardt Creek on the Roanoke River Greenway in 2021, and provided funding to the City of Roanoke for the new surface parking lot at Bridge Street in 2023, also on the Roanoke River Greenway.

Pathfinders has 501(c)(3) status which allows all contributions to be tax deductible. Pathfinders’ trail projects include trails at Carvins Cove, Green Hill Park, Read Mountain Preserve, Poor Mountain Preserve, Waid Park, Natural Bridge, and Mill Mountain Park.