Community Project: National Children’s Forest Visitor’s Center

John at the Children's Forest MuseumRiggins Construction & Management, Inc. is proud to have recently assisted in a joint community project at the Children’s Forest Visitor Center located in Running Springs, California.

The National Children’s Forest is 3,400 acres of forest nestled in the San Bernardino Mountains.  Their website shows their mission statement:

The mission of Children’s Forest is to provide opportunities for children to take a leadership role in forest management by giving them a legitimate voice in caring for the forest; and through formal education and volunteer programs, evoke a fascination with nature that engenders a commitment to life-long learning and forest stewardship.

Riggins Construction & Management, Inc. first assisted other volunteers in the relocation of existing furniture within the visitor’s facility as well as the removal of an existing wall structure and its related electrical components.

Later in time, Riggins Construction & Management, Inc., along with one of our flooring subcontractors, Carpet Time, Inc., donated all required materials as well as all necessary labor and management supervision to install new wood flooring throughout the total facility. To accommodate the new wood flooring height, various metal doors were also removed, cut down, then reinstalled.

Upon completion of the flooring installation all furniture was reinstalled including wall-mounted cabinetry and related equipment as well as the facility’s forest and animal displays.

In addition to assisting other volunteers with programmed hikes at the Children’s Forest Visitor Center, John Riggins, our founder and vice-president, routinely volunteers his time at the Discovery Center (a program of the SBNFA in partnership with USFA) located in Big Bear Lake, CA. Besides assisting with summertime canoe and kayak trips on Big Bear Lake and winter-time snowshoe hikes in the San Bernardino Mountains, John and the other volunteers keep busy with an endless supply of programs.

During the early part of the summer they, in conjunction with the Forest Service, supervised teams of volunteers during the planting of seedling trees within the forest fire burn areas of Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear Lake. Some of the volunteers included corporate groups such as Yamaha, Toshiba, attorney groups, Boy Scout and Girl Scout groups, and even families and club organizations. The Discovery Center volunteers, along with the Forest Service and the nonprofit Tree People, had supervised the planting of nearly 27,000 seedling trees within the burn areas during the 2010 planting season.

More photos are in our Facebook album.

Check out the National Children’s Forest on the web.

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