Florida Hiking Event Connected to AT

I'm not sure exactly how this works out, but at Oscar Scherer State Park, in/near Osprey, FL - as reported by Tom Becnel in the (Sarasota, FL) Herald Tribune on 6 January 2007 - on Saturday 13 January 2007, there is going to be a hike of all 12 miles of trails in the park. That part I get.

What I don't quite get is where Russ Delaney, a retired Army colonel from Fairfax, VA, is quoted as saying that "the Appalachian Trail Club has decided to make it their feature event." Is there an Appalachian Trail Club in southwest Florida? Is this somehow connected with the IAT?

Delaney is said to have gotten "the trail day idea from an Appalachian Trail event in Maryland." And I do know about the hike-the-entire-AT-in-Maryland events. I happened to start a southbound section hike at Pen-Mar in 2005 after they'd all headed down to Harpers Ferry earlier that same day. Nothing left but footprints by the time I was there. That, and some bewildered northbounders asking if I knew what "all those people" were about earlier on.

Whatever. Any day on a trail is better than a day in the office. Sounds like a fun event.