CALUMET TOWNSHIP — Swedetown Trails Club announced today it will launch a crowdfunding campaign alongside the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) to raise and match $50,000 by Aug. 20. The crowdfunding is part of a $1.1 million project to expand amenities and accessibility with its Chalet.

Trails Club Board Member Dean Woodbeck said there is a community need for the Chalet expansion.

“The Chalet was built in the early 1990s and really nothing’s been done to it since then, and we’ve seen increased use,” he said. “All of the common areas, the kitchen, the concessionary, is all on the second floor. The plan is to bring all of that stuff to the first floor and expand it by 33%.”

The rest of the plan is to expand the sidewalk outside the Chalet and add four paved handicap accessible spots. Woodbeck said aside from the community’s need, visitors from out of town use the Chalet and trails during the winter, adding more need for the investment. 

“We’ve seen over the past five or six years and increase in the number of people that come to Swedetown from out of town, particularly in the winter,” he said. “This gives a place where they can gather and where we can sell trail memberships.”

According to Woodbeck, the $1 million in funding came from working with Calumet Township, who owns the trails, to secure funding. The last portion of the $1.1 million will come from the MEDC’s Public Spaces Community Program matching crowdfunding efforts. 

Woodbeck said the Department of Natural Resources’s $400,000 contribution, alongside the MEDC’s funding match has been a huge help to get the Chalet project starting construction in mid-August. 

“The MEDC actually has been very easy to work with… the DNR also has been good to work with,” he said. “We’re grateful that these programs exist.”

The Chalet project has been a big part of modernizing and making Swedetown more accessible to the general public. Woodbeck said part of this goal was finishing its new two-mile accessible trail loop.

“That [trail] combined with making the Chalet accessible kind of gives us the whole area being accessible,” he said. “People in wheelchairs can have a place where they basically an get into the Chalet, use the bathrooms and get out onto the trails this summer.”

Woodbeck said community partners are the reason this project exists in the first place and is grateful for their efforts.

“It’s an exciting project and we’re looking forward to breaking ground,” he said. 

More details and a donation link are available at https://patronicity.com/chalet.