The public picnic area near the Saluda River at Riverbanks Zoo is outfitted with brand new picnic tables and ready to take on the thousands of school children who eat there every year.

The project was a collaboration between the zoo, Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company and The River Alliance. 

Colonial Life adopted the task as their yearly hands-on service project. More than 70 Colonial Life volunteers installed the picnic tables — which were primarily funded by the company — and worked with horticulturalists at the zoo to improve the landscaping. 

Middle schoolers participating in one of the zoo's educational programs ate at the new tables Thursday during the dedication ceremony for the renovated area.

As one of the most-used areas of the zoo, the picnic area was certainly in need of renovations, said Satch Krantz, executive director of Riverbanks Zoo.

"This area is used by tens of thousands of children every year, espcially in the spring, and it gets a lot of abuse," Krantz said. "And we just have not had the resources because it's not a mission-critical part of our organization."

"So when we were contacted by Colonial Life and got with Mike [Dawson] at the River Alliance, I knew this was going to be something that ultimately, standing here today, we would be proud of."  

The renovation is also a step towards The River Alliance's mission to create the Three Rivers Greenway, 8.5 miles of pathway along the Congaree, Broad and Saluda rivers.

Mike Dawson, director of the River Alliance, thanked Colonial Life for supporting the project.  

"It was a unique combination of [Colonial Life] with volunteers who were willing to work hands on, the zoo folks who were able to make this site available and then the concpet of the Greenway."