Volunteers collecting pennies Saturday as a fundraiser for the Montour Trail ran into a pleasant problem when many donors pitched in with "paper money."

On a day that was cool and sunny but very windy, Trail Council volunteers had trouble keeping greenbacks from blowing out of their collection buckets at the intersection below Robinson Town Centre.

"At one point there were bills flying down Montour Run Road" in Robinson, and volunteers running to retrieve them, said Dennis Pfeiffer of Moon.

He was among the Airport Area Friends of the Montour Trail members who were collecting donations during the organization's annual Pennies For Your Trail fundraiser.

About $4,000 was collected in six hours.

The grand prize winner for most pennies donated was Jeff Williams of McKees Rocks. Mr. Williams, a regular trail user who frequently volunteers as well, handed in two large containers filled with 75 pound of pennies, said Phyllis McChesney of Coraopolis, president of the Airport Friends.

His win entitled him to the grand prize, a one-night stay in the Airport Marriott Hotel.

"But he travels a lot and said he would prefer the second prize, which is Pirate Skyblast tickets," Ms. McChesney said. So the hotel room went to Tim Baker of Coraopolis, who donated 16 pounds of pennies.

Money collected annually is used to maintain about 12 miles of the airport section of the trail that runs through Moon, Robinson, Findlay and North Fayette.

It's part of the Montour Trail system, which eventually will link Coraopolis with Clairton through southern Allegheny County and northern Washington County.

Part of trail maintenance by the volunteer group includes adding more crushed limestone to a section of trail in Imperial. Donations will be used to buy limestone that will replace the trail surface washed away over the years by flooding, said Tim M. Killmeyer of Robinson.

Donations also are used to purchase and maintain equipment, including mowers, and for gas to fuel equipment.

This year, volunteers and the equipment got a big workout after the heavy winter snows.

"I'll bet we cleared away 100 downed trees in the first nine miles," Mr. Pfeiffer said. The first step for volunteers was removing trees that blocked the trails. Big trees were then chopped into smaller pieces to make it easier to haul them away.

The Friends also plan to repave the parking lot at Cliff Mine Road in Findlay. They recently paved the lot on Old Beaver Grade Road in Robinson.

"Lane Construction Corp. gave us a good price, and an anonymous donor paid the difference," Mr. Pfeiffer said.

Other pennies donated Saturday will be spent on renting two portable toilets through November.

The Airport Area Friends of the Montour Trail is one of six volunteer groups that take care of their own sections of the Montour Trail in Allegheny and Washington counties.

The Montour Trail Council recently received a $57,000 grant from the Allegheny County Regional Asset District. The money will be used to create a six-mile trail connector from Imperial to the airport in Findlay.

Part of that connector will be a share-the-road section for bikes and cars. But part of it, on an abandoned road owned by the airport, will become a trail connector just for bicycles.

Now people can fly into the Pittsburgh airport, unpack and assemble their bikes and ride the trail all the way to Washington, D.C., Mr. Pfeiffer said. "Airport employees also will be able to bike to work."

He said he hoped to get it completed this year. Discussion and planning of the trail extension have taken about 10 years.

The Airport Area Friends have regular clean-up sessions on the trail on the second Saturday each month. They can always use more volunteers.

Information: www.montourtrail.org.

Looking for more from the Post-Gazette? Join PG+, our members-only web site. You'll get exclusive sports content, opinion, financial information, discounts from retailers and restaurants, and more. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.