Home Contact Us Library Calendar of Events Trip Reports Hike Descriptions Trip Planning Guide Outdoor Links Lessons Learned	A Brief History of the Arizona Trailblazers Hiking Club by Chuck Parsons
	The Arizona Trailblazers Hiking Club begin as the Motorola Hiking Club. In the summer of 1996 several Motorolans, all avid hikers and outdoor lovers, got together and decided to organize a new club within Motorola. This club would be dedicated to the activities of hiking, backpacking, and camping and to the overall enjoyment, appreciation, and understanding of the vast outdoors of Arizona.

The Motorola Hiking Club grew and thrived in its early years, largely due to the ongoing dedication and commitment of its two principal founders, Tom and Jeannie Van Lew.     Layoffs within Motorola in the early 2000s caused the hiking club’s membership to fall below the minimum number of active Motorolans necessary to remain a Motorola sponsored club.

Jeannie and Tom Van Lew

At that point, the hiking club had a choice of disbanding or reorganizing under a different name. Since the club’s leadership and the vast majority of members wanted to remain a viable and active hiking club, we choose to reorganize and became the Arizona Trailblazers Hiking Club in the fall of 2003.     Although the name has changed, the club’s goals and principles remain the same to this day. We are still a group of avid hikers and outdoor lovers dedicated to hiking and to discovering and exploring new trails in the great outdoors of Arizona. We are The Arizona Trailblazers.

updated January 15, 2008