ACT Donates $10,000 For Assateague Horse Film Production!
 Members of Assateague Coastal Trust (ACT) took part in a beach clean-up activity on Saturday, April 26 at the Assateague Island National Seashore (AINS) to help celebrate a recent National Park Service Centennial Challenge $10,000.00 matching grant to the $10,000 ACT donated for the new AINS Visitor Center's Wild Horse exhibit. The $20,000 is being used to fund post-production on a film about the National Seashore's most renowned resource, the Assateague Wild Horses.
ACT Executive Director and  , Kathy Phillips addressed the crowd on Saturday saying, "Assateague Coastal Trust is proud to be a partner with Assateague Island National Seashore in this exciting expansion of the Visitor Center and especially in helping to bring a new experience to the Park's visitors through this updated film production about the famed Assateague wild horses."
Viewing horses is a primary activity of more than 80% of visitors to AINS and the film will enhance visitor satisfaction, understanding and appreciation of the wild horses. Although signs, brochures and other educational media have been somewhat effective in preventing negative and dangerous interactions, a new film dedicated to the horses will offer visitors the opportunity to observe wild horse behavior and appreciate what sets them apart from domesticated animals.
With this improved understanding, park visitors will be less likely to engage in actions that jeopardize either themselves or the horses. This film will also explain the conflicting roles of the NPS in managing these charismatic non-native animals.
Assateague Coastal Trust oversees the popular Assateague Island National Seashore Foster Horse Program. The Maryland herd is managed by the Assateague Island National Seashore, and considerable resources are required to preserve the habitat of beaches and coastal bays upon which the herd depends. In partnership with Assateague Coastal Trust, the area’s oldest non-profit environmental education organization, the Assateague Island National Seashore Foster Horse Program gives horse lovers and beach lovers a meaningful way to contribute to the herd’s upkeep and habitat projects which sustain their environment. For more information on how to become a ‘Foster Parent’ of an Assateague wild horse, visit www.assateaguewildhorses.org
ACT Creates Permanent Endowment Fund
 Founders’ Endowment Will Honor Conservationists Judith Colt Johnson and Ilia Fehrer
August 8, 2007 - Assateague Coastal Trust announced today the establishment of a permanent endowment fund at the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore to benefit its programs in perpetuity.
The creation of the “Assateague Coastal Trust Founders’ Endowment” was made possible by recent memorial donations in honor of two ACT founders who passed away this year, Judith Colt Johnson and Ilia Fehrer. “We are deeply grateful for the life and legacy of these conservation pioneers,” said ACT Executive Director Kathy Phillips. “And we are grateful for the community’s generous gifts in their honor, which will ensure that the work of ACT’s founders to protect our land and water will not soon be forgotten.”
This new endowment will provide funds on a permanent basis to sustain ACT’s education and advocacy programs. ACT supports the Coast Kids environmental education program as well as the Assateague COASTKEEPER®, an affiliate of the well-known WATERKEEPER® Alliance, which works to promote clean water through grassroots efforts. “Our advocacy efforts on behalf of the Atlantic Coastal Bays have gotten a major boost today,” said Phillips.
 The family of Ilia Fehrer contributed a major gift to the Community Foundation to launch ACT’s endowment. Fehrer, who has been called “the greatest voice for conservation in Worcester County,” died last month after a long illness. Fehrer was the recipient of several awards for her environmental activities, including the 2002 Ellen Fraites Wagner Award from the Chesapeake Bay Trust. “Ilia Fehrer embodied the notion that one person truly can make a difference,” said U.S. Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest, R-Maryland-1st.
At a signing ceremony last week, Ilia's son and ACT's past president Joe Fehrer, Jr. presented a check to Community Foundation president Spicer Bell on behalf of the Fehrer family. "By honoring the founders of the Committee to Preserve Assateague through the establishment of this endowment, we will be better positioned to continue and build on those early advocacy efforts," Fehrer said.
 Current ACT president Jim Rapp was also present at the ceremony, along with Kathy Phillips and several ACT board members. "There would be no Assateague Coastal Trust, and no Assateague Island State Park and National Seashore, without the lifetime dedication of Ilia and Joe Fehrer, Judy Johnson, and their contemporaries,” said Jim Rapp.
“Contributions to ACT’s endowment will enable us to honor the legacy of our founders by continuing their commitment to protect and enhance our coastal land and water through advocacy, conservation, and education. While we are saddened by their passing, we are inspired by their remarkable efforts to leave the earth a better place than they found it," Rapp said.
Assateague Coastal Trust is the oldest environmental nonprofit organization in the Atlantic Coastal Bays region. Established in 1970 as the “Committee to Preserve Assateague Island,” the organization has grown to include over 1000 members. In addition to the more than $22,000 already gifted to the ACT Founders’ Endowment, Assateague Coastal Trust plans to raise additional funds to build the endowment during an upcoming capital campaign.
"We appreciate the faith and confidence Assateague Coastal Trust has placed in the Community Foundation to effectively manage these assets so they will be available to benefit the environment in our region for all time," said Spicer Bell, Community Foundation president. “Gifts to the ACT’s Founders’ Endowment Fund will help to grow this important financial resource for the organization and help support grantmaking to Assateague Coastal Trust for all time.”
The Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore currently has over 400 charitable funds representing $69.2 million in assets under management that benefit nonprofit organizations serving the citizens of Maryland's lower Eastern Shore.
|
|
