W.W. Banks was a noted Black scholar, businessman

Around here, word trav­els fast when folks think a line’s been crossed. Recently, a local mid­dle school dra­ma pro­gram per­formed a song from Legally Blonde—the bright, boun­cy open­er, “Omigod You Guys.” The kids sang. The audi­ence clapped. And then, not long after, a par­ent went before the school board to warn that some­thing dan­ger­ous had hap­pened. That stu­dents had been allowed to curse. That God’s name had been tak­en in vain. That young souls were now at risk. 

The sub­ject of this let­ter is the future of what we Clark Countians know as The Traveling Trail, and at its con­clu­sion, I wish to make two appeals. The own­er of this trail prop­er­ty is The Greater Clark Foundation. Part of the foun­da­tion’s Mission Statement describes it as “a health lega­cy foun­da­tion” and states that it favors “invest­ment in peo­ple over projects” and “ambi­tion for a vibrant com­mu­ni­ty.” It goes on to say that it believes in the abun­dant capac­i­ty of peo­ple to cre­ate com­mu­ni­ties they cher­ish,” and that it inspires “vision and action for a com­pelling future.”