The Pennsylvania Parks and Forests Foundation and Beltzville State Park will hold a meeting on Wednesday, June 24, 2015, starting at 7:00 PM to discuss the formation of a friends group for the park. The meeting will take place at the Beltzville State Park Environmental Interpretation Center (EIC).
A friends group is a group of motivated citizens in the local community that understand and appreciate the value of a state park or forest. These indidivudals work to make their favorite state park or forest as clean, accessible, and exciting as it can be. Many groups host trail clean-up days, public interest events, and maintenance of park structures.
The goals of a friends group are unique to each park or forest. This meeting will serve as an opportunity to identify the needs of Beltzville State Park, develop a list of goals for the friends group, discuss the ideas of potential friends group members, and decide what steps to take next.
Currently, there are 38 friends groups across the commonwealth serving under the non-profit arm of the Pennsylvania Parks and Forests Foundation (PPFF), the official nonprofit partner of the Department of Conservation & Natural Resources. In 2014, these hard-working volunteers raised over $390,000, hosted 133 special events (ranging from music and heritage festivals to children’s fishing and Easter Egg hunts), and volunteered over 44,000 hours on the trails, campgrounds, picnic areas, and other outdoor spaces of their state parks and forests.
Interested people should contact Devin Buzard at Beltzville State Park at 610.377.0045 for additional information about the meeting place and time.
About the Pennsylvania Parks and Forests Foundation
Founded in 1999, the Pennsylvania Parks and Forests Foundation supports 120 state parks and 2.2 million acres of forest by coordinating volunteers, activities and donations through its 38 chapters. The mission of the foundation is to promote and support the natural and cultural resources of Pennsylvania’s state parks and forests through leadership in recreation, education, conservation and volunteerism.
Pennsylvania Parks & Forests Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization–contributions to which are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law. No goods or services were received in exchange for this contribution. The official registration of PPFF may be obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of State by calling toll free within Pennsylvania 1-800-732-0999. Registration does not imply endorsement.
