Warriors of the North make 'SAWgnificant' progress helping Emerado park project Published Aug. 27, 2013 By Staff Sgt. Luis Loza Gutierrez 319th Air Base Wing Public Affairs GRANDFORKS AIR FORCE BASE, N.D -- A small group of Warriors of the North helped the sun shine down upon a little part of the North Dakota this past weekend with the help of a few chainsaws, clippers and rakes. Six Airmen and one Air Force civilian volunteered August 24 to help do some landscaping work at Seebart Park in Emerado, N.D., a small town of a little more than 400 residents. "The park looks 100 times better than it was this morning," said Rhonda Henneman, Emerado Park Board member and local resident. "It was so overgrown and dark before, but now the sun is shining beautifully upon the park." The park was maintained by two local residents of the town who happened to be brothers, but the park went neglected for years after both of them passed away. The base volunteers didn't waste any time getting to work. In all they sawed, clipped, dragged and tossed about two dozen trees including one very thick oak that took the four men to safely tip over. The volunteers also collected branches to later be turned into mulch, and helped discard at least five truckloads of brush. When all was 'sawed' and done, the group from the base had finished one hour ahead of schedule, right around the same time the temperature of the day peaked slightly over 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Despite the hours of manual labor and hot temperature, most of the volunteers found plenty of things to enjoy about the philanthropic endeavor, including Airman 1st Class Elias Rios. "Some people may not have been as excited to give up part of their weekend to get sweaty and dirty by basically doing some yard work for a few hours in the hot summer sun, but I'm actually having fun," said Rios. "I grew up in Brooklyn, New York, so I didn't get to chop a lot of trees growing up, and I have to admit, aside from knowing that we helped positively impact a community, doing this type of work felt kind of rugged and manly. I definitely got a great work out from tossing around all those branches and logs." The members of the Emerado Park Board and the park beautification coordinator, Joann Renfrow, were quick to express their appreciation. "We are so thankful for the young men and their help," said Renfrow. "There was simply no way we could have done all of the [landscaping] work that was done today on our own. Today these fine young men have helped us get one step closer to achieving our goal of redesign this park into a place that Emerado residents and their families will once again look forward to visiting and enjoying." The Emerado Park Board plans to transform the Seebart Park into a natural play space such as the one located at Castle Park in Crookston, Minn. A nature or natural play space is designed to incorporate plants and materials native to the area therefore encouraging children to play with rocks, water, sand, leaves, sticks and other materials found outdoors. Even though the base volunteers have helped speed up the progress on Seebart Park's redesign the Emerado Park Board is still in need help in of a few items before they can move forward: - 1 boat (condition is of no concern), - 2 culverts, - sand buckets, - shovels, - bird houses, - house paints. To volunteer, donate supplies or for more information about the park beautification project, contact Eleanor Bader at 701-594-2872 or Joann Refrow at 218-791-7308.