February 21, 2026 - Elkins Park Central at Elkins Park Train Station

Spotlight on Tookany Creek Park & Trail: history, momentum, and what’s next

YJR Outdoors was proud to participate in Cheltenham Township's Cheltenham Celebrates America 250 through participation in the the presentation “Park History Part 2 – School Connections.” Representing YJR Outdoors, John Raisch, YJR Founder, joined the program to help explore how local schools, parks, trails, and public spaces are connected across Cheltenham Township. John presented with fellow park advocates from Friends of Grove Park, Friends of High School Park and Friends of Thomas Williams Park.

This topic is a natural fit for YJR’s point of view. We believe outdoor spaces are more than places to recreate—they’re places to learn, connect, and build community. This presentation was a great example of that idea in action.

A local history presentation that felt very current

The “School Connections” theme made local history feel especially tangible.

Instead of history as something distant or abstract, this presentation focused on places people know: parks they walk, fields they pass, sites they may have used for years without knowing the deeper backstory. John’s portion of the presentation helped connect those historical details to a modern community perspective—how public memory gets preserved, how park systems evolve, and why understanding the story of a place can shape how people value it today.

A major focus of the presentation was Tookany Creek Park & Trail, with supporting examples including High School Park, Thomas Williams Park and Grove Park, all parks withing Cheltenham Township.

Spotlight on Tookany Creek Park & Trail: history, momentum, and what’s next

A big part of John’s presentation focused on Tookany Creek Park & Trail—not just as a park, but as a connected public space system with deep community value and real future potential.

Within Cheltenham’s broader park network, Tookany stands out as one of the Township’s most dynamic multi-use corridors: part recreation space, part greenway, part community connector.

What Tookany Creek Park & Trail includes today

The presentation highlighted Tookany Creek Park & Trail as a linear park and trail system adjacent to the creek, connecting a wide mix of recreation assets and community spaces, including areas around:

• Cheltenham Little League

• Veterans Memorial Field

• Kleinheinz Pond

• William Gottschalk Field

• Gimbel Field

• Connections toward High School Park

This framing was especially useful because it showed Tookany not as one isolated park parcel, but as a networked corridor with multiple entry points, uses, and identities.

The presentation also summarized a strong mix of amenities across the park/trail area, including open space, natural areas, trails, athletic fields, a fitness court, basketball court, pond access, parking, restrooms, and concession-related facilities.

Key data points shared in the presentation

John also walked through some helpful “scale” data points that show just how much is happening in and around the Tookany corridor. Approximate figures shared in the presentation included:

Park acreage (approximate):

• Core Tookany Creek Park: 30 acres

• Gimbel area and adjacent spaces: ~30 acres

• Ashbourne Meadows: 35+ acres

• Cheltenham Little League area: 10 acres

Trail mileage (approximate):

• Tookany Creek Park Trail: 2 miles

• Singletrack trail: 0.5 miles

• Ashbourne Meadows trail system: 1.5+ miles (earthen and paved mix)

That kind of data helps move the conversation from “nice local park” to something bigger: a meaningful public recreation and mobility asset with long-term regional value.

A little Tookany history (and why the timeline matters)

One of the strongest parts of the presentation was the timeline showing how Tookany Creek Trail planning and implementation developed over time.

John’s slides traced a longer arc of progress, including milestones such as:

• early master planning efforts in the late 1990s

• open space planning work in the 2000s

• feasibility and segment planning efforts

• eventual alignment with broader regional trail goals and Circuit Trails thinking

That timeline matters because it reminds us that public projects like trails don’t appear overnight. They move through planning, partnerships, advocacy, funding, and phased implementation. In other words: they take work.

And that was one of the key themes of the presentation overall—local park and trail systems are shaped by people who keep showing up.

Present momentum and future connections

The presentation didn’t stop at history. It also spent meaningful time on the present and near future of Tookany Creek Park & Trail.

John highlighted how more recent feasibility and corridor work has helped frame Tookany as a stronger connector—not just a local trail, but a piece of a larger system. The presentation discussed phased progress in recent years, including work around the Gimbel Field area, and pointed to near-term milestones such as connector openings and continued improvements.

Just as importantly, the presentation looked ahead at future connection opportunities, including concepts and segments that could strengthen links between neighborhoods, parks, and transit access.

That future-facing conversation is where the Tookany story gets really exciting.

Circuit Trails Connection

John also highlighted how Cheltenham’s local park and trail conversations connect to the much bigger Circuit Trails vision across Greater Philadelphia. In the presentation, the Circuit Trails framing helped show that places like Tookany Creek Park & Trail are not just local amenities—they are part of a long-term opportunity to build safer, more connected routes between neighborhoods, parks, schools, transit, and regional destinations. John emphasized that this is where local planning, advocacy, and phased trail improvements can have an outsized impact: each connector segment helps strengthen the larger network, increase public access, and create more meaningful everyday use of trails for recreation, mobility, and community life.

Why the Cresheim Trail matters in this conversation

John also connected the Tookany discussion to the broader regional trail picture, including the importance of the Cresheim Trail and future interoperability between local trail segments and larger trail systems.

This is where local history and future infrastructure planning meet:

• local parks and trails become more useful when they connect

• community-scale improvements can support regional mobility and recreation

• corridor planning today can create access opportunities for future generations

Referencing the Cresheim Trail helped place Tookany Creek Park & Trail in that bigger context—not just as a standalone amenity, but as part of a growing network of trails, park connectors, and public-space investments across the region.

High School Park and Thomas Williams Park: the “school connections” in real life

While Tookany Creek Park & Trail was John's focus, the presentation also did a nice job grounding the “School Connections” theme with two familiar and meaningful Cheltenham sites:

High School Park

High School Park was presented as a strong example of how land can transition from a school-related use into a preserved public space with long-term community value.

The story of High School Park reflects a larger theme of the talk: places change, but communities can choose what those places become next. In this case, preservation and public benefit won out—and residents today enjoy the results.

Thomas Williams Park

Thomas Williams Park helped illustrate another version of the school-to-park transition. The presentation connected the site to its former school-era identity and showed how the land entered a new chapter as a park and recreation space.

For many audience members, this was likely one of those “I know the place, but I didn’t know the story” moments—which was exactly what made the presentation so engaging.

Together, these examples helped make the central idea clear: parks are layered civic spaces. They hold memory, transition, and ongoing use all at once.

Why this matters to YJR Outdoors

At YJR Outdoors, we spend a lot of time helping people experience parks, trails, and public spaces through programs, recreation, and stewardship. Presentations like this reinforce something we see all the time:

When people understand the story of a place, they tend to value it more.

And when they value it more, they’re more likely to:

• care for it

• advocate for it

• use it responsibly

• support future improvements

That’s a meaningful overlap with the YJR Outdoors point of view—especially our Adventure – Advocacy – Action framework.

Adventure – Advocacy – Action (the YJR connection)

This presentation was a great local example of that sequence in real life:

• Adventure — experiencing local parks and trails as active, meaningful places

• Advocacy — understanding the history and public value behind them

• Action — supporting stewardship, programming, and future investment
  
  

YJR Outdoors is grateful to Cheltenham Township and the event organizers for creating space for this conversation, and proud that John Raisch, YJR Founder, could contribute to a program that connected local history to present-day community engagement—and future trail and park possibilities.