Donations toward the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail can be classified in two ways:
Sponsorship of benches are available for a donation of $2,500, With the donation, your name or the name of the person you honor will be listed on a Donor plaque at the Visitor Center and with the name of the bike rack or bench selected.
The benches are made by volunteers. All benches when installed will have hardened accessible pads that allow for companion seating for people in a wheelchair.
We have only 4 benches still available to be sponsored at this time:
We have several bike racks available in need of sponsorship. Most are in Glen Haven, but there is one at the Kelderhouse Cemetery near Port Oneida Road and the Charles Olson Farm. With a donation of $2,500, a bike rack will be placed at a mutually agreed visitor destination near the trail, and you or the person you designate will be listed in a Donor Recognition plaque in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Visitor Center. The bike racks are made by the blacksmiths working at the Glen Haven Blacksmith Shop.
Trail Ambassadors regularly use the trail and assist visitors with questions and safety-related issues. Trail Crew does maintenance like removing downed trees, mowing, clearing leaves and branches, and ski grooming. If you are interested in volunteering for the SBHT Trail Team, register as a volunteer and click the box for Heritage Trail Ambassador or Heritage Trail Crew. Someone from our staff will contact you.
The National Park Service doesn’t allow any memorial plaques on benches or other places in the National Lakeshore. Alternatively, we have named the benches and bike racks and recognize donors in the donor center. This recognition, of trail benches, is for 10 years. After that, the bench is available for someone else to sponsor. “In memory of…” would reside on the Donor Recognition plaque in the Park Visitor Center in Empire. You can donate directly and include your message on our Donation Page.
If you donate $1,000 or more to building the next segment of the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail, “In memory of…” would reside on the Donor Plaza at the Dune Climb forever (or as long as the trail is there…). For more information about the trail and to make a donation, visit http://sleepingbeartrail.org.