New Play Center Opening at Frank Raines Park in Stanislaus County, CA

SPRING LAKE, N.J. - March 14, 2013 - PRLog -- Stanislaus County, CA – After nearly a year in the making, a giant Cornelius tree, themescaped playground will be opening for children in Stanislaus County in a beautiful natural setting.  Children can travel down slides through giant tree limbs, climb cargo nets, swing, rock climb and pass through a massive tree trunk that serves as the center of the play center (see photo below).

Stanislaus County Parks and Recreation department will host a ribbon cutting at Frank Raines Park on Friday, March 22 at 11:00 am to unveil new custom playground equipment (http://www.mrcrec.com/Play/Custom-Playgrounds/) designed by MRC Recreation.  The event will be free for the public and all are welcome to attend.  Fifth grade students from Northmead School in Patterson will be in attendance to demonstrate the new equipment.

The playground was designed to be visually pleasing and to comfortably fit in its surrounding natural environment.  The addition of the playground will be welcomed by regular park users who visit to picnic, bird watch and hike.  The unique playground customization will undoubtedly attract new park users as well.  

“The playground equipment is a spectacular complement to this beautiful park,” stated Jim DeMartini, Supervisor for District 5 in Stanislaus County.  “I’m extremely pleased with how the project turned out and happy we’ve been able to add this to the park.”

Playground equipment (http://www.mrcrec.com/Play/Playground-Equipment/) designer Doris Harpain of MRC Recreation (http://www.mrcrec.com) said, “We create our products to be realistic and extremely fun for children.  We’ve been able to enhance and build upon the natural beauty of Frank Raines Park.”

Frank Raines County Park is located approximately 20 miles west of Patterson in Del Puerto Canyon’s rugged slopes of the Coast Range.  The park’s west section encompasses over 1500 acres of developed and undeveloped areas with off-road vehicle trails, overnight camping and a day use area.  According to the Stanislaus County Parks Master Plan, dated August 24, 1999, the plans for the day use area included receiving a new playground, additional picnic tables and barbeques.  

The major recreation focus of the park located north of Del Puerto Canyon Rd is off-road vehicle use.  This side of the park includes an entrance station, a full hook- up campground, recreation hall, restroom/showers, and a group picnic shelter.  On several occasions there are large groups of people who are enjoying both sides of this park.  On holidays like Easter, the day use area, where the new nature inspired playground is located, will be filled with families and children enjoying the new adventure playground area.  With the addition of the playground, it is anticipated more families will seek to adventure on the park’s off-road trails.