Oroville, CA – California State Parks Foundation awarded the Feather River Center with $12,000 to benefit victims of the Paradise Camp Fire. In response to this disaster, Feather River Center wanted to help locals reconnect with nature. As the nonprofit operator of the Forebay Aquatic Center, they invite children and families to the North Forebay in Lake Oroville State Recreation Area to relax and enjoy the outdoors. 

This grant will go to the nonprofit’s Discover the Bay in Your Backyard program, where kids and families can enjoy water-centric activities at the Forebay Aquatic Center. Feather River Center hosts special days for previous residents of Paradise, waiving the park entrance fee and offering aquatic rentals at a discounted price.

“It’s kind of an undiscovered jewel in the area,” said Tony Catalano, Executive Director of Feather River Center. “We’re helping people discover more places where they can engage with the healing power of nature. They have something in their backyard that’s both recreational and educational, and this grant is allowing us to expose more people to that.”

This grant is a part of the California State Parks Foundation’s most recent grant round which provided over a quarter of a million dollars in funding to 27 organizations across the state. “These grants reflect our commitment to increasing youth access to state parks and will be instrumental to our work of bringing more meaningful and highly impactful youth-focused programs into state parks,” said California State Parks Foundation Programs and Advocacy Director, Holly Martinez.  “We are thrilled to be able to work with impactful partners such as the Feather River Center to make our state parks more accessible to all Californians.”