A hiking program designed for families has been launched for the year by the Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy. The group’s Amelia Hansen tells WSJM News the Hike Our Preserves, or HOP, program is intended to get people to enjoy the great outdoors at the conservancy’s eleven preserves. You get started by buying a $7 hiking stick.
“We encourage people to take the stick and hike ten out of eleven preserves that we’ve made available in southwest Michigan,” Hansen said. “We cover a nine county area. For ever preserve that they hike, they get a special medallion.”
A hiking stick is $7, and they can be bought at a variety of locations we have listed at our website. They’re made out of an invasive plant species. Hansen says more than 650 people have taken part in the HOP program since it started five years ago.
“It just seems really important to get kids interested in being outside, having good experiences outside.”
When you hike a preserve, you just send a photo of yourself at that preserve to the land conservancy, and they will send you the medallion. You can sign up for the HOP program right here.
Below is a list of locations to purchase a HOP hiking stick:
Antwerp Sunshine Library, Mattawan
Bangor Branch Library
Bloomingdale Branch Library
Covert Branch Library
Gobles Branch Library
Hastings Public Library
Kalamazoo Public Library, Alma Powell Branch
Kalamazoo Public Library
Lawrence Branch Library
Marcellus Township Wood Memorial Library
Nottawa Township Library
Parchment Community Library
Paw Paw District Library
Portage District Library
Richland Community Library
Schoolcraft Community Library
Webster Memorial Branch Library, Decatur
