Barbara Franklin Remarks at the

Opening of the Wallace Barnes Accessible Nature Trail

Bristol, CT

May 5, 2024

This is a momentous day, one our entire family has been waiting for with great anticipation!  I am thrilled beyond words.  The fact that the day is rainy and chilly doesn’t matter one bit!

I am so grateful to Scott for the idea of this trail and for working so hard and energetically to make it happen over the past more than 3 years.   It was a major project.  So many helped…the superb contractors, the board, the donors, large and small, and the community -- thank you Mr. Mayor. Those federal dollars were important.  

It was moving for me to hear from Fern, in her wheelchair, courageously from her heart, what this accessible trail means to her.

I walked this trail in the summer of 2021 with Jarre Betts, Mark DiVenere and Melanie Dumont, led by Scott.  It was not yet a trail then but rather a soggy path cut through the woods. It was a muggy day and a bit buggy.  But the birds sang so beautifully, a sign that this was going to be great.  Today, mostly completed, it exceeds any expectations that I had on that summer day.  It is perfectly wonderful.  I know Wally would love it.

Wally loved nature and the out of doors…and while he spent many hours in business meetings and the like, in a coat and tie, I think he was most comfortable and happiest when he was surrounded by nature.  No coat and tie, dressed in jeans, a shirt, shoes or no shoes, and his signature Tilley hat. I am wearing one of his Tilley hats today in his honor.  I think he would like that.

Wally’s love of nature was for every season, any type of activity.  He did lots of different activities – hiking, mountain climbing, white water canoeing, sailing, skiing, working in the woods at Sky Bight and of course, flying, which was another way to commune with nature.

Wally’s joy in the out of doors is very much imbedded in his family.  His children, Tom and Jarre, his 6 grandkids, and 18 great grandkids.  They share his love of nature.  That’s why this wonderful trail with his name on it means so much to all of us.

He would want everyone to come to this trail, from miles around, adults and children walking, folks in wheelchairs, babies in strollers.  He would want everyone, young and old, to experience the joy of nature as he did throughout his entire life.

And as a personal note…I have always been a nature lover…but Wally gave something special to me -- nature wrapped in adventure.  He was at heart an adventurer.  What a gift.  I would never have done by myself some of the things we did together…hiking here in Connecticut and in other places around the world, walking on glaciers, climbing Mt. Washington, Tuckerman’s Ravine.  I am eternally grateful to Wally for this gift.  

I know he is watching over us today and is so happy about this Trail.

Thank you again to Scott, the contractors, the board, the donors, the community, and everyone here.  Let’s get to the ribbon cutting!