Lincoln, Neb. (October 25, 2012) – Bastrop, Texas, resident Donna Fiebrich was named the grand prize winner for the Arbor Day Foundation's fall Volunteer Center contest and chose Friends of the Lost Pines State Park to receive a $250 donation.
Through support from Toyota and an innovative partnership with VolunteerMatch.org, the Volunteer Center at arbordaynow.org offers an interactive and easy-to-use database for locating conservation-oriented volunteering opportunities in all 50 states. Participants who registered on the website and volunteered at a local event were eligible for the prize.
Friends of the Lost Pines State Park is one of a number of organizations and state agencies helping to restore the 75,000 acres of loblolly pines destroyed during the September 2011 fire. Earlier this year, the Foundation, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and Texas A&M Forest Service launched the Lost Pines Forest Recovery Campaign, a multi-year initiative to raise money to plant more than 4 million trees on public and private land in the loblolly ecosystem.
In addition to the $250 for her choice conservation group, Fiebrich also received an arbordaynow.org volunteer T-shirt and a Kindle Fire, and 50 trees were planted in her honor on Florida's Blackwater River State Forest.
In April, 50,000 online voters used the Volunteer Center to select five Tree Campus USA schools as winners in a contest for $1,000 to plant trees and recruit new volunteers.
About the Arbor Day Foundation: The Arbor Day Foundation is a nonprofit conservation and education organization of one million members, with the mission to inspire people to plant, nurture and celebrate trees. More information on the Foundation and its programs can be found at arborday.org, or by visiting us on Facebook, Twitter or our blog.