Construction of the Laguna Lake Park project in San Luis Obispo, Calif. included many happy volunteers. It took a number of weekends even with the use of heavy equipment provided by a local construction company. Volunteers also brought out an array of hammers, shovels, rakes, levels, wrenches and a cement mixer.

As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "The first wealth is health." Wallace Group subscribes to this philosophy and recently helped San Luis Obispo, Calif. design and build pro bono, an outdoor fitness course at Laguna Lake Park.

The firm's Tom Zehnder, John Wallace, Lori Trowbridge, Christina Wilder, Marty Wilder, Ben Jensen and his family were among the more than 30 volunteers at the Laguna Work Day held on April 13, 2013. The three San Luis Obispo Rotary clubs and the San Luis Obispo Rotaract Club all participated in the hands-on effort to install a 10-station fitness course at Laguna Lake Park.

The genesis of this project came from founder Wallace and COO Zehnder's involvement in Rotary. The local clubs have a history of community involvement especially when it comes to public places. Because of the company's staff and its interest in the great outdoors they had no trouble recruiting their experts for this project. Senior landscape architect Ann Sever rolled up her sleeves and got to work.

The 10 fitness stations are carefully spaced along a one-mile jogging track. Cal Portland donated the decomposed granite and San Luis Obispo provided bark mulch.

First she visited the site several times to ensure the design would be aesthetically pleasing and functional. She coordinated with the clubs to help select the exercise equipment that was perfect for the project.

Sever developed the demolition plans for the removal of the old defunct exercise equipment and the layout plans for the installation of the new equipment. She developed details and notes on how to build the project since many of the helpers were untrained volunteers. In essence, Sever was key to helping them do the job right.

Volunteers installed gopher wire, weed fabric and shoveled a ton of decomposed granite for trails and exercise areas. Zehnder was inspired by the efforts because "it was a great opportunity for employees, Rotarians and members of the community to come together in a fun environment, to build something for the community to enjoy for many years to come," said Zehnder.

Every tool in shed and some from inside the office were utilized to complete the project starting with AutoCad and LandFX design software. After a site survey and two months of design the firm submitted the plans to San Luis Obispo County. Once the plans achieved county approval the second phase of hard work commenced.