About Our Club

Mission

Our goal is to promote fitness and good health through the simple pleasure of walking and friendship. Any money earned from our year-round and hosted walks is reinvested in future walks (for maps and directions, small prizes, trail marking supplies, trail snacks, etc.). We also participate in community-service projects and events to benefit local residents, such as the annual "Run for the Roses".

History

Sherwood Merrywalkers was formed in 1986 by several teachers and the principal of Hopkins Elementary School as part of its physical education program. The club hosted walks for many years but went inactive around 1996. In 2001, Sharon Klein was approached by the McMinnville Mac Trackers to map out a walk in Sherwood. While Sharon was busy being a trail master, Renette Meltebeke, a long-time resident of Sherwood, was thinking of reviving the Merrywalkers. Sure enough, their paths crossed and they teamed up to reactivate the club. With support from the Sherwood Regional Family YMCA and its members, the first meeting of the new Merrywalkers was held in November 2001 at the Y. In January 2002, the club hosted a very successful "WE'RE BACK!" kick-off walk. The rest is history, as they say.

Sherwood Merrywalkers is an Oregon non-profit corporation and a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization under the American Volkssport Association's Group Exemption.