Weyerhaeuser recently awarded National Park College a $7,500 grant to create an outdoor seating area that gives students another way to safely social distance.
"We're very excited that Weyerhaeuser was able to help us with this project. It was a combination of several grants that we received so that we could completely renovate all of our outdoor seating areas," Nicole Herndon, executive director of the NPC Foundation, said.
"We have park benches, we have picnic tables, both regular and ADA compliant, and umbrellas, because, in a time when social distancing is imperative, we wanted to make sure that our students can safely be outside and safely social distance," she said.
Herndon said the college receiving this grant helped along with another $2,500 grant NPC received through the Elisabeth Wagner Foundation.
"It was a project that took several stages as we worked to refurbish," she said.
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Herndon said many businesses and organizations realized the college was facing the challenges of having to social distance, noting, "I think we were the recipients of this grant simply because they knew the need; they knew that our students needed to safely social distance.
"(This grant) provides an outdoor seating area that will be used for the future as well. It's not just for the COVID-related term, it's for the future. This provides a place for our students to come outside to be in its natural habitat."
Another reason for an outdoor seating area was that the picnic tables and park benches at the college were older and not in great condition.
"We saw the need to replace those. ... Our faculty and staff needed a place to go outside and enjoy our beautiful state of Arkansas," Herndon said.
"This was a way for us to work together to get a better seating area for all of our community members for our faculty, our staff, our students, but also to provide that social distancing atmosphere," she said.
NPC reached out to Weyerhaeuser and asked them if they could apply for one of their grants. The college had a local representative who was more than willing to help them go through the proper channels.
"We filled out the form, and we were able to receive the grant," Herndon said.
NPC purchased all of the benches, picnic tables, and umbrellas, which they have refurbished across campus, she said. The college had a lot of wooden park benches and picnic tables and the new ones are a metal type of material that will last a lot longer.
"We've put them on our south side (of campus) where a lot of our high school students are. We've put them throughout the campus where all of our faculty and staff and our students and adult ed (are located)," Herndon said.
There is a special protective coating on top of all of the benches and tables that will sustain them for a long time so NPC will not have to replace them any time in the near future.
NPC's campus is always open, she said, so anyone can come and sit and enjoy the outdoors and enjoy the area.
"We have our commons market that's open throughout the summer as well, so anyone's invited to come to get lunch, come sit outside, enjoy our beautiful campus and all that we have to offer," Herndon said.