Leadership Butler County has announced its 2016 community project. It is improving a nature trail at the Mount Chestnut Early Learning Center.

Butler County Children’s Center along with Intermediate Unit IV educates about 200 children, ages 3 to 5, at the center. These children have special needs or live in low-income households.

The children’s center is a private, nonprofit corporation that provides children’s programs, such as Head Start, Early Head Start, Kindergarten and Pre-K Counts. It was established in 1973.

According to Steve Green, Children’s Center CEO, educators find that it’s advantageous to give children the opportunity to do some outdoor learning as a supplement to the traditional classroom.

“From my perspective, in the day and age that we live in, we have to do a better job of engaging children,” Green said. “Educating children goes beyond the four walls of a classroom. It has to be about getting kids up and moving.”

The nature trail, which was built by the Young Professionals of Butler County about four years ago, will be improved for use by center children and another 300 served at satellite locations.

“We just wanted to expand on their (Young Professionals) great idea,” Green said.

During the winter, the project will be in the planned. That will focus on clearing the trail, installing drainage, paving or graveling the trail and building outdoor learning spaces and nature-based exhibits along the trail.

Each year, Leadership Butler County creates a community project for a nonprofit.

The Class of 2015 worked on the construction of an outdoor classroom pavilion at MHY Family Services in Mars, which is a residential program that cares for troubled and abused youth.

The leadership organization has raised more than $83,000 for the pavilion, which will cost a total of $99,650.

MHY also received a $25,000 grant from the PNC Foundation for the project.

The structure will be called the PNC Learning Pavilion.

MHY hoped that if the winter is mild, the project could be finished within a few months.