Through thousands of volunteer hours, Ruth Holliday blazes trails

Ruth Holliday has been a longtime local trailblazer in helping convert unused railroad lines into recreational trails.

Holliday, who runs Bicycle Pedaler with her husband, Bob, is an active member of two nonprofit groups that have worked with local governments and residents to help build and maintain two area trails used by walkers, joggers and cyclists: the Prairie Sunset Trail in western Sedgwick County and the Redbud Trail that currently extends from northeast Wichita into Andover.

While the pair have supported several charitable efforts — from repairing donated bicycles for Christmas distribution by Toys for Tots to organizing bike ride fundraisers, Holliday’s passion, she said, is the rails-to-trails work done by Prairie Travelers and the Andover Augusta Rails to Trails Initiative, also known as AARTI.

She’s a founding member of the Prairie Travelers, a nonprofit created in 1998 that helped bring the rails-to-trails movement to the Wichita area. The group started work in 2002 to build the Prairie Sunset Trail, which is now a 15-mile trail that runs between Garden Plain, Goddard and Wichita in southwest Sedgwick County.

As secretary of Prairie Travelers for 20 years, she manages the group’s communications, tracks donations, writes grants and helps organize fundraisers.

She’s also been on the AARTI board since its inception in 2011. AARTI helped create and maintains the Redbud Trail that is built along the former Burlington Northern Santa Fe rail coordinator. Plans call for the trail to expand farther east, into Augusta.

In 2015, Holliday was instrumental in organizing 11 out-of-town AmeriCorps volunteers who, during a 13-week stay, helped both groups expand their respective trails.

With the ongoing efforts of Holliday and others, the two trails may eventually meet up to become a 50-mile bikeway, running from Garden Plain to Augusta.

“None of this would happen without the support of so many other people,” Holliday said.

Helping build and maintain the trails goes beyond having a safe place to ride bikes, walk or jog, Holliday pointed out.

“As more folks use the Prairie Sunset Trail and the Redbud Trail, they are becoming aware of the need for trails and their role in providing critical habitat for wildlife as well as protecting our streams from pollution and reducing soil erosion. But just as important in this hectic world, they allow nature to touch and restore us. Quality of life now and for generations to come is our goal,” she said.

The daughter of Mennonite missionaries who lived in Colombia and Uruguay during her childhood, Holliday said, “service was observed and embedded from the time I was born.”

For Holliday, she feels she’s been fortunate to take what was an avid hobby and turn it into not only a business but also a service to others.

In 1980, she and her husband, who were both working as registered nurses in Wichita, spent their honeymoon taking a 2,000-mile-trip from Wichita to California. When they returned, they decided they wanted to open a bicycle shop to share their enthusiasm for biking.

This story was originally published February 16, 2020 at 12:00 AM.