Support-a-Trail

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The founders of the Dogwood Arts Festival recognized the inspirational power of the East Tennessee spring and the dogwood blooms. They built a unique way to share the beauty of the dogwood with hundreds of thousands of our neighbors and visitors—the Dogwood Trails.

While the trails have provided a rich and fresh floral tapestry each year for the last four decades, there are challenges to the longevity of the dogwoods.

Age—dogwoods, like all trees grow old and eventually die

Disease—anthracnose and powdery mildew have taken a portion of our dogwoods

Human inflicted damage—one of the bigger threats is the weed-eater damage

Severe weather—this is a rare occurrence but extreme winters have done damage

Now it is our responsibility to nurture this inspiring resource for future generations of East Tennessee and our guests by replenishing the dogwoods on all of our trails, garden by-ways and throughout Knox county. We must start planting dogwood trees in order to not only preserve but to enhance one of Knoxville’s most notable treasures.

In order to accomplish this, we are taking the principle from another successful beautification effort and applying it specifically for Knoxville—Support-a-Trail. Structured primarily for the corporation or business that wants to have a key role in supporting the community in beautification and providing a lasting contribution, Support-a-Trail promotes direct, visible involvement and a hands-on effort to help keep Knoxville blooming.

The primary needs for our trails are:

• Planting dogwoods annually—as many as possible

• Educating the public on how to plant, grow and protect dogwoods—brochures, web site & clinics.

• Providing signage for the trails each spring to better facilitate the showcasing of our trails

• Printing tour brochures for each trail to enhance the dogwood trail experience

• Promoting the springtime splendor of the trails throughout the region

• Inspiring the public to “match” our efforts by planting their own dogwood trees

• Building an endowment for the specific purpose of planting dogwoods and permanently providing funds to accomplish all of the above.

As a participant in Adopt-a-Trail, you and your co-workers will gain fulfillment from seeing the results of your efforts year-round, each year. Adopt-a-Trail is an annual sponsorship with options of a one or two year commitment. And in consideration of your support, you will receive

• Attribution in all trails related promotional materials for the period of your support

• Attribution on a year-round trails marker sign located on the trail

• One-two creatively crafted and aesthetically designed signs with attribution on your designated trail for 6 weeks each year of your support—2 weeks prior to the opening of the Festival (about the time they start painting the stripes) and staying up throughout the month of April.

• Individual trail brochure available at the beginning of each trail with title attribution during the Festival

• Invitations for four to the annual Trails Opening Luncheon and Open Gardens Luncheon

• The option for you and/or your co-workers to plant dogwood(s) on your designated trail during the planting season in the fall or prior to the Festival.

• Attribution on the Dogwood Arts Festival web site in the “Trails” section

• Attribution in the DAF Calendar of Events and the News Sentinel DAF Supplement

• One DAF Limited Edition Print for each year of your support

• Opportunity to promote your community support and beautification efforts in your own separate materials accompanied by the Dogwood Arts Festival logo.

• The knowledge that the trees you help plant also play a role in helping address our air quality challenge.

• Attribution on the permanent archive of support for the Dogwood Endowment

• And when possible, special purchase prices for you and your co-workers on dogwood trees.

An additional community benefit to this program that merits special attention is the involvement of the University of Tennessee. UT Horticulture researchers have taken a leadership role in the development of new species of dogwood. With the purchase of each anthracnose and powdery mildew resistant species of dogwood tree developed through the research at UT Horticulture, UT receives a royalty. A portion of your investment goes to support higher education in Knoxville.

As you can see, this program is a multi-win scenario—The Trails, UT, Knoxville, Knox County, the Festival, tourists and visitors, future generations of East Tennesseans and your organization all benefit from the support you provide.
The options for support are:

Support-a-Trail
1 year $5500.00
2 years $5000/year

Support a Garden By-Way
1 year $4500.00
2 years $4000/year

The breakdown of how your support is allocated is:
Annual planting 32% the amount is determined by age and size of trees available & labor , Administration 24% coordination of effort, insurance, research and record keeping, Promotion 20% brochures, signs, advertising and PR efforts, Endowment 24% building a permanent fund for supporting all of the above in perpetuity.

There are 7 Dogwood Trails–the maximum allowed by our by-laws:
Sequoyah
Holston Hills
Farragut
Chapman Highway
Fountain City
Lake Loudon
Westmoreland

There are 5 Garden By Ways
Deane Hill
Island Home
Morningside Garden
North Hills
Halls/Timberlake

Each year in rotation, one trail is the “Featured Trail” for the Festival. This means a special designation in promotional material and the annual Trails Opening Luncheon and Trails Opening ceremony take place as close to that trail as possible.

Every Trail is of vital importance to the Festival and to Knox County. Therefore, in order to maintain parity, the trail receiving your support will be assigned by the order in which we have a pledge in relation to the sequence in which the trails were approved and invited to be a part of the Dogwood Arts Festival.

In the situation of a support beyond 2 years, your support will be rotated to different trails also in sequence. The period of sponsorship begins in September or at any time up until March 1st just before the Festival and expires on June 30th following the Festival.

Support-a-Trail is an excellent way to give back to the community and ‘pay-it-forward’ for future generations. We hope you will join us in protecting Knoxville’s natural icon, the dogwood tree.

Support-a-Trail Footnotes
For the year-round signs, we will a permanent trail marker that is aesthetically pleasing and acceptable to all neighborhood associations. As we are dealing with numerous associations and various neighborhood covenants, there may be some debate as to what is “aesthetically pleasing” and the best placement for these signs. However, the DAF trails committee has representation with each neighborhood association and we do not anticipate a problem.

The permanent signs will have an area for support attribution that is changeable as different adopting sponsors join our efforts throughout the years.

The same discussion will take place for the temporary Festival signs but by virtue of being temporary signage, the hurdles are minimal.

For Farragut, there is a different situation. Farragut has some very strict guidelines regarding signage. The Festival must go before the Mayor and Board of Alderman each year for approval to set-up the temporary Festival Trail signs. We are still in the early stages of this effort.

This all goes to the beautification and benefit of each respective neighborhood and community so while there may be discussion, the common goal is easily perceived and in most likely universally supported.

Terms:
With your signed agreement, 50% of the sponsorship is due and the remainder is due when the year-round trail marker is put in place with attribution to your organization.

You will be given an estimated timeline for the remaining sponsor benefits and also put in touch with the Trails committee chair for your adopted trail.

If there is a tax deduction opportunity in this unique opportunity, we will happily provide you with a confirmation letter. With a sponsorship being tied directly to an allocation for an endowment, our accountants will need to advise us on the latitude we have in this situation.