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FOR TWENTY YEARS
Our Mission: Inspire Stewardship of Pennsylvania's State Parks and Forests

Water Flies - McConnells Mill State Park
Photo by Twisted Mountain / Jeremiah Gadsby

Happy #OptOutside Friday! We hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving Day, even as family gatherings took on a different look this very strange year. It's time to go outside and clear out the cobwebs with gratitude for our beautiful public places. Please RecreateResponsibly.

We at PPFF have a lot to be thankful for. In this past very busy week:

Generous park and forests supporters brought in a little over $13,000 during last Friday's ExtraGive campaign. That's just about .1% of the Lancaster County Community Foundation's total $13 MILLION raised for community projects in that one day. Truly extraordinary!
Committed park and forests advocates made calls and sent emails (including through our online Take Action Center) to their state legislators keeping safe the very important Keystone Recreation Park & Conservation Fund and Environmental Stewardship Fund. "Word was" the volume of messages received at the Capitol was a big part of why the final budget kept those funds where they belong, working to increase recreational opportunities in communities across the commonwealth.
Nominations have started to come in for our 2021 COVID-19 Champions. There is a month to nominate your hero for recognition. Visit the website - there's a button right on our home page!

Those three things alone brought big smiles to our faces. So thank you!

For the masthead this week is a photo from McConnells Mill State Park by Twisted Mountain/Jeremiah Gadsby. I cropped it as I did (so you should give a click to the full shot for sure) so that you might see what definitely look like ice crystals in the stream. Says Jeremiah, "This was my first shot of the day today and one I soaked my right leg from the knee down at 9 a.m. when it was 35 degrees. Thank goodness for wool socks! Even when wet, they're still warm."

Gratitude for things big and small - and warm!

Pam Metzger
Membership Coordinator
Pennsylvania Parks & Forests Foundation

News of Note

The theme of this week's message is "gratitude," and I will say that among the things I am grateful for is the chance to go out on the Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail a few times a year and work with the Ridge Runners volunteer group. They always work hard but they're a warm and welcoming bunch and it's a lot of fun. Chief among them for many years has been Jerry Eicher, shown here on the right holding up the Forbes Road sign with Chainsaw Mike to the left. Jerry was also the long-time chair of the Friends of Laurel Hill, handy with an idea or a trail-clearing axe. Jerry lost his battle with cancer this week and Ridge Runner days are just not going to be the same without him. Everyone at PPFF will miss his ready smile.

As mentioned above, the ExtraGive campaign brought in a little over $13,000 for PPFF and our projects. Now thanks to one of our generous board members providing a $1,000 match pool, we'll take a few moments on Giving Tuesday (that's 12/1) to see if we can reach the $15,000 goal established for ExtraGive. Give a click to ppff.gives/givingtuesday2020 if you happen to find a little additional money in the couch cushions.

The City of Harrisburg's Reverse Holiday Parade on Saturday was just a lot of fun (although Bernadette, Sarah, Marci, and I all noted a bit of shoulder stiffness from waving to the steady stream of passing cars). Big thanks to Highland Gardens of Camp Hill for loaning us five lovely little evergreens for the display. It was just a delight to spend a little time with Bernadette's granddaughters and to see all the smiling friendly faces, paying particular note to the presence of an inflatable unicorn in the small field to our right. Nearly every little girl who passed could be heard to shout "Unicorn!" just as they cleared our assigned space. For us, the day concluded with very special visitors to our virtual campsite. See? Even stormtroopers like the outdoors.

Between #OptOutside Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Giving Tuesday comes CyberMonday. You might consider a living gift from PPFF ...

Or how about a new t-shirt or hoodie from the Friends of Michaux's Bonfire campaign. Pretty design!

This week's jigsaw is a mystery puzzle. Are you up for the challenge?

Take Five for Trivia

Thanksgiving birthday baby Ruth Patrick was a renowned water biologist and limnologist (student of freshwater lakes and rivers) who famously first connected the dots between species diversity and a healthy ecosystem.

Your activity this week is to name something for which you are grateful. Share if you wish, or just send it out into the wind.

In Closing

SUPPORT PPFF

Pennsylvania Parks & Forests Foundation (PPFF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization - contributions to which are tax deductible to the fullest extent permitted by law. The official registration and financial information of PPFF may be obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of State by calling, toll-free within Pennsylvania, to 800.732.0999. Registration does not imply endorsement.

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