Kiwanis Club repairs Crossroads Park shelter

CASPER, Wyo. — The Kiwanis Club of Casper recently finished repairs to its rest shelter along the trails at Crossroads Park that had been years in the making.

According to past club president Ted Barker, the renovations included providing benches and a picnic table, adding shading plates, replacing the deteriorating roof, giving the shelter a fresh coat of paint and more.

“The complaint was that we didn’t have any shade because of how bad of shape the roof was in, and we didn’t have any seating under the shelter itself,” Barker said. “Simply put, it was an eyesore.”

The work, which was handled by Casper-based Pope Construction, took a couple months to complete. However, the project had been in the planning stages for far longer than that. According to Barker, the Kiwanis Club had been looking to renovate the shelter for about seven years. Until this year, he said, competing voices made it difficult to make headway on the planned project.

The work was mostly funded by the Kiwanis Club’s annual pancake breakfast fundraiser, with the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center also providing $10,000.

Barker said he hopes the new and improved shelter doesn’t only help outdoor recreation enthusiasts as they walk alongside the North Platte River, but also raises awareness for the Kiwanis Club.

The Kiwanis Club is a community-driven nonprofit that primarily focuses on local children. Throughout the year, the club has a reading program, donates books to local schools, runs a Coats for Kids Drive in the winter, operates the area high schools’ Key Clubs and more.