Kiwanis Club to raise $4 million to improve Vulcan Park, build new trail

The Kiwanis Club of Birmingham – set to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2017 – today announced plans to raise nearly $4 million to make major improvements to Vulcan Park and to create a two-mile jogging and biking trail that will extend to Green Springs Highway.

Birmingham Mayor William Bell and KCOB President Tom Thagard announced the project today at a luncheon at the Harbert Center downtown.

The other partners in the Kiwanis Centennial Project will be Vulcan Park and Museum and Freshwater Land Trust, the release states.

The project will have three major components.

The first phase will include improvements to the north side of Vulcan Park, which the club said to be in disrepair. Work will include landscaping, renovation of the lower piazza entrance and the building of steps for walking access from the north side to the statue. This municipal and event space will be known as Kiwanis Centennial Park.

The second component will be the jogging and bike trail, which will serve in the future as a hub of the planned 750-mile Red Rock Ridge and Valley Trail System.

The third component will be a multi-colored light show, designed by internationally known lighting-design firm Schuler Shook, to be projected onto Vulcan each night to enhance the image of the city’s icon.

“We’ve done a lot the last few years to improve the experience of visitors who go to Vulcan,” Bell said during a press conference at city hall prior to the luncheon. “The Vulcan Trail will add to that.”

“The experience of walking along that trail and having beautiful views of downtown Birmingham will be highly improved by the work that’s going to be done,” Bell added.

Kiwanis plans to raise all of the $4 million from individual member contributions, corporate and civic foundation contributions and easement contributions from the Freshwater Land Trust.

A groundbreaking is planned for May 2017, the KCOB's centennial month.

KCOB helped create Vulcan Park in the 1930s, according to the news release, making it appropriate that the club get involved with facility again, according to Thagard.

“Invigorating Vulcan’s role as the unifying symbol of Birmingham is fitting for our club’s Centennial Project,” he said in the release.