KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A new map of the Kansas City area is helping families beat the winter blues while learning more about the city they love
Jeremy Collins was raised in Lee Summit and started to design the Kansas City Map of Outdoor Pursuits and Nature Education at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I went online and joined a mountain biking community on Facebook and then a hiking, kayaking community, and I noticed they were all asking the same question: Where do I go?" Collins recalled. "And as I looked around, there was no single reference, there was no single place where I can learn all of that."
Collins is an artist and began designing the map while receiving input from people living in Kansas City.
"I wasn't working on it full time, I was picking pieces to work on but [it took] over a year of looking online, interviewing people, calling different parks and learning as I went," Collins said.
The map serves as a unique guide for people wanting to get outdoors and doesn't include certain landmarks or city parks by design. It instead maps out sledding hills, disc golf locations, places that are ADA friendly and more.
"It’s an alternative to those man-made, man-built activities," Collins said. "Golfing was requested a lot and I decided golfing has a limitation of costing something, it costs and you have to pay and so in theory these are things you can do on your own.”
The map started appearing on select retail store shelves two weeks ago and hundreds of copies have already been sold.
The map can be found in Made in KC, REI Overland Park and ROKC in Olathe and North Kansas City.
