South Lake Tahoe, CA – Heavenly Mountain and Kirkwood Mountain Resorts, through the Vail Resorts Echo program, partnered with the City of South Lake Tahoe for the fourth annual Vail Resorts Echo Day on Saturday, as 312 resort employees, friends and family volunteered to revamp Bijou Community Park.

The team put in a combined 936 volunteer hours on Saturday laying sod to build a family picnic area, painting signs and picnic tables, planting shrubs, clearing bushes, redistributing wood chips, resurfacing the skatepark, raking the volleyball courts, picking up trash, and cleaning up the bicycle path on Al Tahoe Blvd.

“I am proud that our Heavenly and Kirkwood employees positively impact our community in a big way every year on Echo Day,” said Pete Sonntag, Heavenly general manager. “Our goal is to better the communities that we all live and work in, and the massive turnout of volunteers shows how dedicated our employees are to making a difference.”

Vail Resorts Echo Day is an annual, company-wide volunteer day for Vail Resorts (VR) employees and their families. VR Echo Day hosted eight events for employees and their family and friends this past weekend, including projects on Tahoe’s North and South Shores, in Utah, Colorado, Minnesota, Wyoming and at VR-owned properties in the Caribbean. Launched in August 2010, VR Echo Day focuses on projects that are meaningful in the local resort communities where the company operates.

“Heavenly Mountain and Kirkwood Mountain Resorts provided an astonishing number of volunteers to work on Bijou Community Park. The park looks fantastic, and we couldn’t be happier,” said Bruce Scholes with the City of South Lake Tahoe. “The hard work done by the volunteers has really helped enhance the qualities that make this a true community park for residents and visitors alike.”