At Rails-to-Trails Conservancy's (RTC) 25th Anniversary celebration in October, we honored a group of men and women--the inaugural Doppelt Family Rail-Trail Champions--who have made a remarkable contribution to the rail-trail movement during the past quarter century. We will be posting a blog story on each of the honorees during the coming weeks. Today we pay tribute to Sally Jacobs, whose promotion of options for walking and biking made her a powerful champion of active transportation in the Northeast.

Born in New York City and transplanted to the Black Hills of South Dakota as a teenager, Sally Jacobs spent a number of years in northern Colorado and Iowa before settling in Orono, Maine.

Her diversity of experiences in America's urban and rural areas was the perfect background for the many decades she has since spent as an advocate for reshaping community landscapes to better serve riding and walking.

After a long and successful career in bio­chemistry, Jacobs was tapped in 1975 to chair a newly formed bicycle safety committee in Orono. One of her first actions in what would become a second career was securing grant funding from the Federal Highway Bikeway Demonstration Program to build bike lanes in Orono, and the first off-road paved bike path in Maine. The five-mile bike path connected Orono, Old Town and the University of Maine campus with sections of an old railbed.

Jacobs went on to become founding president of the Sunrise Trail Coalition, a position she held for 12 years. She has served on the Maine Depart­ment of Conservation Trails Advisory Committee and the Maine Department of Transportation Bicycle-Pedestrian Advisory Committee since their inceptions in 1992.

Her most recent dream-come-true was the opening of the 85-mile Down East Sunrise Trail, built on a railbanked corridor along the coast of Maine--the culmination of 25 years of rail-trail advocacy.

To receive the Doppelt Family Rail-Trail Champions grant awarded in her honor, Jacobs chose the Sunrise Trail Coalition (STC) in recognition of their outstanding work and need for ongoing funding. With the official opening of the Down East Sunrise Trail in September 2010, the scope of the STC has transitioned from advocacy to management and fundraising for trailhead amenities, promotional materials and maintenance.

Photo of Sally Jacobs receiving her Doppelt Family Rail-Trail Champions Award from RTC President Keith Laughlin by Scott Stark/RTC.