The Nacogdoches County Chamber recently held a Ribbon Cutting ceremony with Keep Nacogdoches Beautiful for the grand opening of Friends of the Forest Trail at Pecan Acres Park, 936-560-5624, www.keepnacbeautiful.org/fof-pecanpark. KNB Chairman Tyrone Curl, Director Dawn Stover, Executive Director Ashely Villarreal and project partners welcomed chamber and community leaders and guests.

Below is the speech explaining the Friends of the Forest Trail and the program partners involved given by KNB Director Dawn Stover:

Welcome to the Friends of the Forest Trail in Pecan Park. This project is brought to you by the Board Members of Keep Nacogdoches Beautiful as an educational tool for our youngest citizens to engage in learning about, and caring for our community. Our Mission at KNB is to enhance the Nacogdoches community by encouraging individual responsibility in three main areas: litter prevention, waste reduction and beautification.

We are lucky to have 20 forest friends throughout Pecan and Pioneer Parks to teach about the mission of KNB, as well as our community’s rich history, how to care for our environment, and ways to stay active and healthy as a family. Each Friends of the Forest Trail begins with Olivia the barred owl stationed at a Little Free Library. From there, 10 forest friends will take you through each of the 2 parks on a magical, educational and informative journey. In Pecan Park, Raymond Raccoon begins our journey with how to create a litter-free community and ends with Beverly Beaver who encourages community service through volunteering in a variety of ways. Guests can access the Forest Friends’ stories on the Keep Nacogdoches Beautiful Website. Each park’s trail has a welcome sign with a QR code that will take you to those stories so you can learn about each friend as you find their homes throughout the parks.

This project was realized with help from many partners. KNB would like to recognize our creative team at the Nacogdoches Public Library, under the guidance of Crystal Hicks. Emily Childress is our teller of stories, and Katt Ruth our illustrator of creatures. Tred Riggs keeps us on track with his easy-to-follow maps.

Lithany Hernandez brings the stories to our Spanish speaking friends under the direction of Dr. Mario Morera with the Department of Languages, Cultures and Communication at Stephen F. Austin State University.

A personal thank you to Ashley Villareal and Brandi Derouen with KNB who made a lot of the moving parts of this project happen, and Brain Bray who was instrumental in connecting us with the right people at the City to turn creativity into reality. A very special thanks to Tommy Stanley and the entire Parks Department who curate and care for our parks and projects like this to make Nacogdoches a unique, special and beautiful community in which to live. To NPD officer, Seth Stover, who gets roped into things out of his wheelhouse by his crazy wife  - for installing the houses in each of our parks.

And last, but absolutely not least, thank you to an amazing young man who is truly going to do great things in life. Amongst his many achievements, Holden Kelly was the Master Architect and Builder for the houses for these friends in the forest within our city. Holden’s generous participation in this project earned him the rank of Eagle Scout with the Boy Scouts of America. To Holden, and all of our friends, I say a heartfelt thank you on the behalf of Keep Nacogdoches Beautiful for your contributions to better our community.