3 PA Communities Try New Approach To Funding Park, Recreation Projects

Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn Tuesday commended three Pennsylvania communities for their effort to raise funds for local park improvements by engaging supporters online.

“For most Pennsylvanians, local parks serve as their primary location for outdoor recreation, so it’s a real priority of our statewide outdoor recreation plan to enhance close-to-home opportunities and provide innovative funding sources for local parks and recreation,” Dunn said.

The Greater Elizabethtown Area Recreation and Community Services in Lancaster County, Centre Region Parks and Recreation Authority in Centre County, and Richland Township Parks and Recreation in Bucks County, will take part in the National Recreation and Park Association Fund Your Park campaign.

Fund Your Park is an online platform coordinated by NRPA where communities can post exciting and innovative project for donors to fund. The three Pennsylvania projects are among 12 nationwide that will seek donations for a period of 30 days.

The Pennsylvania projects are:

-- Greater Elizabethtown Area Recreation and Community Services: A new playground at

the Poplar Street Park, Elizabethtown, geared towards 2-to-5 year olds; fundraising goal

is $5,000

-- Centre Region Parks and Recreation Authority: Expansion of the Millbrook Marsh

Nature Center, State College; fundraising goal is $25,000

-- Richland Township Parks and Recreation: New signage on a 1-mile nature trail in

Robert O. Keller Memorial Park; fundraising goal $2,000

“Local parks are healthful touchstones for their communities,” said Tim Herd, CEO of the PA Recreation and Park Society. “It’s there we connect nature and neighborhoods for our own personal, social, environmental and economic wellbeing. Investment in these community assets is always rewarding.”

For information on this funding tool, visit Fund Your Park website.

Learn more about how local parks and recreation helps strengthen communities, or to find your nearest park, visit the Good For PA website. To read the statewide outdoor recreation plan go to the PA Outdoor Recreation Plan website.

For more information on state parks and forests and recreation in Pennsylvania, visit DCNR’s website, Click Here to sign up for the Resource newsletter,  Click Here for upcoming events.  Click Here to be part of DCNR’s Online Community,  Click Here to hook up with DCNR on other social media-- Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.
(Photo: Millbrook Marsh Nature Center, State College.)