Scrapbook Photo 03/25/24 - 93 New Stories - REAL Environmental & Conservation Leadership In PA: http://tinyurl.com/3729bhvv
Linda McKenna Boxx Receives Western PA Lifetime Environmental Award
Photo

Linda McKenna Boxx, the president of the Allegheny Trail Alliance and the driving force behind the creation of the Great Allegheny Passage, a 150-mile trail connecting Pittsburgh to Cumberland, Maryland, received a lifetime achievement award, this week from the Pennsylvania Environmental Council.
 
The award was presented at the Western Pennsylvania Environmental Awards Dinner on May 27. The awards program is sponsored by the Pennsylvania Environmental Council and Dominion.
 
Ms. Boxx’s distinguished career includes public service positions in state government in both Pennsylvania and Arkansas. Her experience included a wide variety of positions in conservation, land use planning and the infancy of the rails-to-trails movement in Pennsylvania.
 
She has also served as the chairman of the Katherine Mabis McKenna Foundation, based in Latrobe, since 1982. In this capacity, Ms. Boxx has worked to provide support for a wide range of innovative programs including the remediation and protection of land and waterways, development of community and recreational facilities, rehabilitation of landmark buildings and a broad range of educational opportunities.
 
In 1993, she saw an opportunity to work with a number of regional trail groups in Western Pennsylvania and coordinate their local efforts into one large continuous trail connecting with the C&O Canal Towpath trail in Cumberland, Maryland, effectively creating a 335-mile continuous hiking and biking trail from downtown Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C.
 
The success of that work resulted in the Great Allegheny Passage, which is now nearly complete. All that remains is to finish a few miles of trail between McKeesport and downtown.
 
Every year thousands of people complete the Washington to Pittsburgh trail ride, including the hundreds of cyclists who last year participated in the week-long sojourn or the 24-hour relay ride as part of the “Pittsburgh 250” celebration.
 
Ms. Boxx also serves on a number of boards, including the Fallingwater Advisory Committee, the Regional Industrial Development Corporation of Southwestern Pennsylvania, and the Laurel Highlands Visitors Bureau.
 
She is a graduate of Bucknell University.

5/29/2009

    Go To Next Article

Return to This PA Environment Digest's Main Page