A Huge THANK YOU to Mountain Harbor and Shangri-La Resorts
With any project as large as the Lake Ouachita Vista Trail, success is determined by both the dedication of the volunteers and the support of the business community. The LOViT Traildogs, on behalf of Friends of Lake Ouachita and the many people who utilize the Trail, would like to take a moment to give a special word of thanks and deep appreciation for two businesses that have never failed to respond to our many requests for support: Mountain Harbor Resort and Shangri-La Resort.
The owners and staff of these lake resorts were two of the first donors to provide the initial funds we needed to secure our first matching National Recreational Trail Grants. And, over the years, both resorts have furnished over-the-top support in assisting us in completing this vision of a forty-five mile-long Mountain Biking & Hiking trail along the southern shore of beautiful Lake Ouachita.
The Mountain Harbor folks have volunteered to keep the Irons Creek Road section of our trail free of summer weeds and have used their equipment to clear a large collection of trees and gravel that had completely blocked the low water bridge on Irons Creek Rd., causing the creek to flood the trail. This year, Mountain Harbor has provided housing for six weeks to our contracted machine operators leading the completion of the seventh section of the trail, saving our Non-Profit organization thousands in per diem costs. Mountain Harbor Resort is a true partner that we know we can always count on to support the completion of the massive LOViT project. They don’t wait for our request, but rather they come asking, “What can we do?”
The good folks at Shangri-La Resort provide color maps to trail users at no cost, and on many occasions, they have provided free trail lunches to large groups of volunteers who come annually to assist the Traildogs in the continued construction of the trail. This year they provided free meals for the contracted machine operators for several weeks, again saving our organization thousands of dollars of per diem costs, money that we can use as matching funds for the grant monies needed to complete the trail. Dedicated and never questioning, the good folks of Shangri-La Resort are strong partners to our effort.
There are other organizations who also provide support when asked, but these two are always asking “what can we do,” and it sets them apart. Again, many, many thanks to the owners and employees of these two fine businesses and wonderful LOViT partners.
Jerry