September 30, 2008
Elk Country Visitor Center Receives Dominion Gift
Pictured from left to right in photo: Rod Triepke, RMEF chief operations officer, Bob Blue, Dominion’s senior vice president of external affairs, Rawley Cogan, RMEF lands manager and capital campaign chairman, Gary Sypolt, president of Dominion Transmission, Mike DiBerardinis, secretary of DCNR, Rep. Dan Surra, D –Elk and Clearfield counties, Pa. Legislative District 75, John Love, Dominion’s director of operations.
BENEZETTE TOWNSHIP, Pa.—Dominion, one of the nation’s largest producers and transporters of energy, continues to support elk, conservation and education in Pennsylvania. The Dominion Foundation has announced a $250,000 gift to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation for a new Elk Country Visitor Center to be constructed in the Pennsylvania Wilds.
“Dominion has been a great supporter of the Elk Foundation in Pennsylvania for over 14 years. It has steadily contributed to elk habitat enhancement, stewardship and relocation projects, and now is generously helping with a state-of-the-art elk conservation education and tourism center near Winslow Hill,” said Rawley Cogan of the Elk Foundation.
Dominion made the announcement at a groundbreaking ceremony held Sept. 25. The center is expected to be complete in late 2009.
The new Elk Country Visitor Center, a $12 million project, is being developed around local input and a wide variety of public and private partners. Planned designs, exhibits and programs are the result of partnerships between the Elk Foundation, Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and Benezette Township residents, local officials and business owners, educators and students.
Gary L. Sypolt, president of Dominion Transmission, said, “Our company appreciates and values our long-term relationship with the Elk Foundation. We’re proud to support the Elk Country Visitor Center as well as many other conservation and education projects that bring meaning and quality of life to Pennsylvanians.”
Dominion will be recognized by name at special elk viewing blinds at the center.
Cogan is leading the Elk Foundation’s capital campaign. Fundraising is now three-fourths complete. For more information, visit http://www.pennsylvaniarmef.org/ or contact the Elk Foundation at 800-CALL ELK.