Water drawn from the San Bernardino Mountains for Arrowhead Spring Water is returning in bottle form to the San Bernardino National Forest Association (SBNFA) to hydrate its volunteers.
Over 1,000 volunteers work on the Forest Association’s year-round environmental stewardship-based programming and its Urban Conservation Corps (UCC) program. The SBNFA UCC is a workforce development program that offers young men and women, ages 18-25, the chance to serve on the National Forest and become employable citizens through hard work in
environmental conservation. The program receives partial funding under the federal government’s stimulus program and is proud to be a part of President Obama’s economic recovery efforts.
The second component of the UCC is the Urban Youth Conservation Corps targeting ages 13-17. In its three years of service, the Corps has provided over 50,000 hours of conservation and environmental services and has also changed the lives of over 200 young people.
“This donation has come full circle . . . like the water,” explained Sarah Miggins, SBNFA executive director. “We have been working with Larry Lawrence, a senior officer of Arrowhead Water and SBNFA board member, to take delivery of this huge donation that will support many mountaintop efforts including forest restoration and the upcoming Run the Bear Marathon, produced by The Lighthouse Project.” Delivery was moved up to accommodate the upcoming marathon scheduled for September 12, to support all participants and volunteers in the event’s full and ½ marathon, 5k run, kids’ run and bike tour
(www.runthebear.com).
Butcher’s Block & Building Materials donated their forklift and operator to off-load the 22 pallets, or 42,000 bottles of water, to an SBNFA distribution site. “In addition, the water will support our communities of volunteers who join us for National Public Lands Day on September 25, Green Thumbs Restoration days on September 19, October 17 and November 21, and for the entire 2010 Forest Aid tree-planting season where thousands of volunteers will join the campaign in planting over 25,000 seedlings next spring in the 2007 wildfire burn areas in and around the Big Bear Valley,” Miggins added, offering “many thanks to Arrowhead Water for this unprecedented and timely donation.”
For more info or to volunteer for forest restoration, contact Stacy Gorin at the Big Bear Discovery Center at (909) 866-3437 or log on to www.SBNFA.org.
