BEL AIR, Md. — She’s back in her environment.
“If you just had a bad day at work or you just wanted to come out and walk your dog, you can come over here.”
WATCH: The return of Bear Legacy Adventure Trail
Stacy Brzozowski’s passion for the trail she and her husband cut just off of South Tollgate Road in Bel Air has never wavered.
“You take your kids on vacation and then they forget about it, but if you keep bringing them back, they’ll be like, ‘Oh remember that trip we went on, Dad?’” told us as we walked over a freshly cut path through the woods.
The Bear Legacy Adventure Trail is a testament to the Brzozowskis son, Bear—-a four-year-old who loved the outdoors, but whose life was cut short by a sudden illness.
“He would wake up in the morning and I’d open my eyes and he’d be in my face and say, ‘Hey, Mom. What’s going on today?’” Brzozowski told us as she tried her best to hold back tears, “and I’m like, ‘I don’t know. We’ll figure something out.’ We’d jump in the car. We’d go playground hunting… find some trail in the woods. Ever since he was little, I’d backpack with him on my back. So he always loved the big trees, the green grass and the rivers that went by.”
The trail shut down more than two years ago as work got underway on the Maryland Center for the Arts new campus, but now, it’s preparing to reopen.
Work is underway to rebuild the hiking trail and activity stops solely with volunteers.
“I’ve got a list of at least a dozen groups that have offered to help,” said Elaine Calderon, the group’s treasurer, “whether it be sports groups or Scout groups or even work groups—-people, they… you know… they get some volunteer time, just want to help.”
It’s a trail for the community by the community with no entry fee and no budget beyond donations, but Brzozowski has never shied away from the challenge.
“If this is what had to come out of it. It was worth it. Carrying my tools through the woods and hearing them laugh or watching them… I’m sorry,” she said as she paused to regain her composure, “watching them play Nerf guns behind the trees instead of behind sofas. It’s worth it.”
Of course, the big question now is when exactly will the trail reopen.
Well, they’re not quite sure, but they do have a special date in mind.”
“Well, I guess if I had to put it out there in public, Bear’s birthday is July 21st,” Brzozowski told us, “Maybe shortly after that.”
