Students from the Porterville Unified School District Pathways and community volunteers made up about 150 people working at Success Lake on National Public Lands Day on Saturday.
About 15 trees were planted throughout the campgrounds and green spaces. Porterville students and others painted curbs and renovated campgrounds during the morning.
Jasmine Diaz, a junior from PHS, Ryan Crowder, and Ryan Perhan were painting the curbs, and Diaz said it was a fun experience being able to help the community. Crowder said it was nice being out here and helping. All the volunteers were picking up trash, painting restrooms and completing other tasks. Crowder said he's been volunteering at the lake since he was in elementary school.
Ryan Perhan said she enjoyed coming out to help the community and getting her service hours credits, plus it was fun being out at the park on the weekend.
Students from PHS planted a Desert Willow in the campground, while other students from the Porterville Military Academy Aviation Academy planted a Live Oak Tree. There were a bunch of other groups planting trees in other areas.
David Sanchez from PHS said, "Nature's important, and the future. We need to plant more trees. I'm enjoying this and I love to garden at home. We've planted trees at home and I am also making Bonsai trees and a Bonsai succulent at home.”
Another PHS student Kevin Carvajal said he was enjoying helping out and it was his first time at Public Lands Day.
"This is a good event," said Love Singh. "They are teaching us how to garden. And people are filling the holes in the campground lawns. It's great helping out here.It was cool for the school to bring the students to help at National Public Lands Day, and they were enjoying learning how to plant trees, and just being out in the park helping out."
PMA students enjoyed planting trees and they said it was fun. It was also a good bonding experience doing all the hard work together. “It bought us closer to nature. And we appreciate the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for asking us to come and help,” said Michael Tyler.
There are close to 150 volunteers, said USACE Kris Wheeless in 13 different groups. Dylan Tyson said, "They've done a really good job planting the trees." Andrew Payne, another engineer, said they had a great group of volunteers.
Tracy Atchison said she's been volunteering every year for the past 10 years with her family. "Now they are doing something fun for the volunteers this year, something they've never done before, a Scavenger Hunt."
USACE Project Manager Oscar Gonzalez said the Riddle Scavenger Hunt was created by the entire team because they wanted something fun for all the volunteers, and usually they work from 8a.m. to noon but they stopped an hour early. The Scavenger Hunt still has volunteers walking around the park, picking up trash, visiting places on a map that are numbered they have to find to complete the riddle. Volunteers also visit various vendor booths, talking to the Park Rangers, the California Highway Patrol, the U.S. Forest Service, Home Depot and Sequoia Community Group, and find a campsite grill and fa camp picnic table. Plus there were snow cones from a vendor, as well as a lunch of Subway sandwiches, and Starbucks provided a Passion Fruit Tea.
It was fun for the volunteers and there were prizes in a drawing.
"Thank you to all the volunteers who came to help make this possible. Thank you to the sponsors for all their donations, Eagle Mountain Casino, Fruit Growers, Success Lake Marina, Walmart Distribution Center, Galaxy Theatre, The Boot Barn," said a USACE Team member.
Charlie Mauldin, Chief of South Operations Branch USACE said it was another good annual National Public Lands Day, and "Oscar's team organized the whole event with the schools, local partners, and agencies. We've always had such good local support who do a lot of work with Oscar Gonzalez.”
David Sanchez completed the Scavenger Hunt and received a National Public Lands Day T-shirt as well as a one-night camping voucher.
Cecilia Hernandez said she enjoyed her experience at volunteering and was happy, and she felt it was good to be doing something else besides school work.
Abigail Hernandez Cruz said it was her second time volunteering and she helped fill in squirrel holes in the campgrounds. It was hard work, but she said she took her time to appreciate the beauty of nature and she was grateful for the opportunity to help.
At the Porterville Academy of Energy Related Occupations, AERO, booth Jamie Beeman said Public Lands Day was a great way to show appreciation and give back to what's needed most.
"This event is a great way to communicate the reasons to preserve wilderness and other natural areas," said Kellyn Hardin from PHS AERO.
Jared Garcia and Lorenzo Cervantes said it's good to keep the community clean and nice for other people so they can enjoy the view.
"It's always good to have the city and the parks clean," said Aroni Garcia.