Celebration marks completion of walking path
PARIS – Those who helped in its creation gathered Tuesday to celebrate the completion of a new walking path at Oxford Hills Middle School.
The paved oval path around the school’s athletic fields will be open to the public after school hours when no other school activities are going on. Motorized equipment, skateboards and pets are not allowed.
At 5 feet wide and more than a third of a mile long, the path was built with contributions from both town- and school-related groups.
Healthy Oxford Hills, part of Western Maine Health, spearheaded the project and also contributed financially to its construction, said its president, Joe Wyman.
“The path was built to encourage students to walk before, during and after school, and as a community resource to support more people living healthier lives,” he said. The school’s physical education department will make regular use of the path as well.
Wyman said the path around the school’s football and field hockey fields is in keeping with another Healthy Oxford Hills program, the Passport to Fitness walking program, which ended this week. This year there were over 300 participants in the 10-week program who walked over 8,000 miles.
“We had a good turnout this year,” he said. Healthy Oxford Hills, funded by a federal tobacco company settlement, offers programs to quit smoking,
Highway crews from Paris, Norway and Oxford did the excavation work for the path at no cost. Pine Tree Paving, P&K Sand and Gravel, McGlaughlin Signs and Falls Fencing Corp. provided materials at cost.
The middle school’s student council helped raise money for the path’s construction, as did the Oxford Hills Athletic Boosters. Other contributors were SAD 17, Seltzer & Rydholm, bottlers of Aquafina and Dasani Water.
Members of a committee who worked on the project were Wyman and Jen Fitts from Healthy Oxford Hills, Oxford Hills Middle School Principal Hal Small, Norway Recreation Director Debra Partridge, Cathy Rowland from the district’s school-based health center, and SAD 17 employees John Parsons, Lance Belanger and David Marshall.
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