The city of Vicksburg will soon become a walker’s paradise, offering opportunities in the downtown area and at city parks for people to get exercise and enjoy the outdoors, and the city has several benefactors when it comes to developing the trails to improve the health of our citizens.

My Brother’s Keeper Inc., a private, nonprofit organization, with a mission to reduce health problems throughout the U.S. and promote healthy living and the use of accessible public facilities, has to date provided the city with $104,000 in grants to either upgrade, build or enhance walking trails at three city parks.

A $25,000 grant in August from the organization helped pave the city’s walking track at City Park, which was covered with rock, making it safer for walkers. A $30,000 grant will provide benches, handicap accessible water fountains and fitness and exercise stations for the trail to be built at Halls Ferry Park, which is also funded in part by a $99,000 federal Recreational Trails Program grant administered by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries & Parks. A $49,000 My Brother’s Keeper grant will help cover the cost of design, engineering and clearing land for a walking trail at Porter’s Chapel Park.

Other benefactors were the Vicksburg-Warren County Chamber of Commerce Community Fund and the National Park Service, which combined to acquire a $25,000 Lower Mississippi Delta Initiative grant for the city to develop five walking trails in the downtown and historic districts.

When completed, the walking trails, which will start from the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Depot on Levee Street, will allow visitors to tour the city on foot, providing an opportunity to get a look at the city’s unique architecture and historic buildings they could never get by cruising the city in a car or tour bus. Besides helping tourism, these trails also provide accessible resources for our residents to get out and walk and help change the state’s image as having a very overweight population.

With public funds shrinking in a tight economy, grants are important sources of revenue for cities, and organizations like My Brother’s Keeper, state Wildlife Fisheries & Parks and the Mississippi Delta Initiative that can offer their resources and assistance are a blessing.