Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation

The Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina is a non-profit organization classified as a 501(c)(3) by the Internal Revenue Service. The Foundation was created in 1997 to raise private funding for the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The Foundation is governed by a sixteen-member volunteer Board of Trustees. Each Trustee is elected by their peers and serves a three-year term. The Executive Director runs the day-to-day operations of the Foundation, and is a paid staff member. The current Executive Director is Dr. Houck Medford. None of the other Trustees receives any compensation.

The Foundation is not a membership organization. Its supporters are individuals, organizations, businesses and private and family foundations as well as participants in the North Carolina State Employees Campaign and the Combined Federal Campaign.

All supporters may receive the "Scenic", a biannual journal describing the Foundation's activities and highlighting Blue Ridge Parkway projects. The Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation also has an electronic newsletter that is free to all subscribers; the eBRPN subscription is available online, http://www.brpfoundation.org.

Purpose

The Foundation exists to support Blue Ridge Parkway programs primarily for visitor services and education, cultural and historic preservation, planning and scientific research. The Foundation's support of Parkway programs must meet two criteria: to have a lasting value and to enhance the quality of the visitor experience.

Priorities

The Foundation works with land conservation organizations including Western Virginia Land Trust, High Country Conservancy and the Conservation Trust of North Carolina to preserve the Parkway's scenic qualities.

The Foundation funds Parks As Classrooms, the National Park's education outreach in elementary schools which allows seasonal park rangers to travel to the schools in twenty-nine counties. The program teaches elementary age children about the National Parks, the Parkway's natural resources, and the importance of conservation.

The Blue Ridge Parkway will be 75 years old in 2010. More than 20 million people visit the Parkway each year and those journeys are described in people's memories,stories, and photographs. Because these stories are part of the Parkway's history, the Foundation has established a Family Photograph and Story Archives.

Endowments

In addition to directly funding projects, the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation maintains endowment funds for the benefit of Blue Ridge Parkway resources. Endowment funds exist for the preservation of Moses H. Cone Memorial Park and its carriage trails, the Museum of North Carolina Minerals which is in the Spruce Pine Mining District, as well as for the Blue Ridge Parkway's "Parks As Classrooms".

External links

* [http://www.brpfoundation.org/ Official website]
* [http://www.brpfoundationstore.com/ Foundation Store for Everything Blue Ridge]
* [http://www.virtualblueridge.com/ Virtual Tour of the Blue Ridge Parkway]
* [http://www.nps.gov/blri/ National Park Service web site for the Blue Ridge Parkway]