It’s been 10 years since the River Walk first opened after three years of construction, 7,000 tons of debris were removed, and more than $6 million in donations and grants were invested into its formation.
And next month, local artist Jody Parmann and other community organizers will celebrate that legacy — and the enduring promise to keep the shoreline accessible to the public — with a free anniversary event.
The Blue Water River Walk 10-Year Celebration is set to open at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 17, with remarks from local officials at 6 p.m. at the ferry dock, 51 Court St.
According to the event’s Facebook page , it’ll include live music, a bonfire, and catered food — and against the backdrop of what Sheri Faust, executive director of the Friends of the St. Clair River, said was organized around September’s full moon.
It’ll additionally entail a shoreline tour with the Trailblazers group, live community art with Parmann, a 10-year commemorative gift, and storytelling with local historian and lecturer Andrew Kercher.
As of Monday, Kercher said he was still nailing down the details for his piece but expected to help point out things visitors may not typically notice on the trail.
“Their goal, obviously, with that trail is to turn it to basically a prehistoric state, pre-contact, what would this have looked like before industrialization,” he said. “So, talking about how much that is a big change, and how much differently that looked during industrialization. I think there’s some definitely neat stories that can be told along that path. And then, a little bit about the river itself and its significance to the Great Lakes.”
Parmann said she was working with Faust on a commemorative design for the celebration to use on ceramic coasters and stickers people can take with them.
She had also a specific participatory public art project in the works.
“(Faust) and I talked about the first tree planted on the River Walk and what the species was. So, I want to create a kind of bare design, like a naked tree, of that particular species,” Parmann said. “Then, everybody who attends will be able to leave a fingerprint to kind of put the foliage on that tree.
“And by the time the event is done, it will all be filled out with the leaves that are fingerprints of people who contributed in one way or another to the River Walk.”
Faust said she thought it was important to honor the anniversary of the River Walk, as well as Wetlands County Park, which took shape in the several years after the walk debuted, pointing to the Friends group, Community Foundation, and county parks and rec as three major partners that helped keep the vision “alive and fresh in people’s minds”
They, like everyone else, she said, all have a stake in its future.
MORE: ‘I want it to exist always’: Port Huron to celebrate River Walk’s enduring promise
“We just hope this anniversary even renews excitement and interest in the future of the River Walk,” Faust said. “You hear a lot of people tell stories or share memories about what that area was like just even a generation ago, whether they remember sewage overflows or unregulated chemical roots or the water wasn’t safe to swim or drink, and … just as it takes a village to raise a child, in the case of the Blue Water River Walk and St. Clair River, it takes an international village because we have to work across two different countries to care for the river.”
This article originally appeared on Battle Creek Enquirer: Blue Water River Walk celebrates 10 years with free event
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