Hi Friends,
Our next “Friends of Letchworth” meeting is scheduled for this coming Saturday, March 19th, at the Visitor Center conference room beginning at 10 a.m. For those who are new to our group, we meet the 3rd Saturday of every month. (Committees meet in between meetings). Everyone is welcome to attend. Attached is our agenda for this meeting. I have also attached our website report for February showing 302 visits.
Please join me in welcoming our newest member: Juana Larin all the way from Houston, Texas! Thank you for being a “Friend”, Juana! Also, thank you for renewing your membership! Our group continues to grow which is so great!
We received some very wonderful, exciting, and amazing news this past Wednesday J!!! Gov. Cuomo announced the winners of $450,000 in competitive state grants for “Friends” groups across the state who are dedicated to the stewardship and promotion of our state parks and historic sites. We are so very honored and privileged to have been one of the 20 organizations across the state selected to receive one of the grants. We are also one of 3 groups selected in the Finger Lakes Region. I posted the article about the grants on our “Friends” Facebook page.
We will be receiving $20, 980 for training and equipment to enable our group to do trail work in our awesome park. This is so exciting as this is an area we have wanted to help with for a while and many of you have also expressed an interest in volunteering in this way. We will also be purchasing a much needed big park event tent that you will see at the various activities and events this season along with a cargo trailer to keep it in. We will be matching this grant with $5,000 from our own funds. These Park and Trail Partnership Program grants are being administered by the State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation as well as Park and Trails NY. Thank you so very much for this awesome award PTNY and OPRHP!!
Grants take a lot of thought, time, effort, and teamwork to do. A huge shout out to our grant chairwoman and writer, Vici Campbell, for all of the time and effort she put into this along with our grant committee: Miranda Collin, Jill Crocker, Karen Ferguson, Al Gregg, Carol Rathbun, and Jan Vrooman; and to our Park Manager Roland Beck, Assistant Park Manager Doug Kelly, and Historic Site Manager Brian Scriven for all of their guidance and support. We also had some great letters of support for this grant which we appreciated very much: Elissa Leuer—Director of Tourism and Marketing for Livingston County, Park Manager Roland Beck, Regional Chairman of Park Commissioners Peter Humphrey, Assemblyman David DiPietro, Assemblyman William Nojay, Senator Catharine Young, and Senator Patrick Gallivan. AWESOME TEAMWORK!!
Save the date! Saturday, May 7th is our 5th annual “I Love My Park Day”. Once again we will be partnering with the park for this annual event where we gather to clean up areas of the park for the tourist season. This year we will be at the Tea Table and Wolf Creek areas where there will be leaf clean up, bench staining, invasive plant removal, and work around the playground. Our group will be providing a picnic style lunch consisting of grilled hot dogs, assorted chips, beverages, a relish/veggie tray, fruit, etc. for all of the volunteers. Thank you to our Assistant Park Manager Doug Kelly for coordinating this event again this year along with Parks and Trails New York!
Just a reminder……if you haven’t already done so, please send in the contest card that came with your Letchworth Calendar purchase to be eligible for the free week-end stay in the park (courtesy of the park) at Maplewood Lodge. The lucky winner will be drawn March 31st.
Have a nice Easter!
~ Carol