Memorial Gifts for Kate Reagan Wade Create New Smokies Fund
(February 18, 2004 - Sevierville, TN) – Recent gifts in memory of Kate Reagan Wade will launch a new “Smokies Fund” to provide annual support for the work of Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Kate Reagan Wade was born in Knoxville in 1915, and she was Sevierville’s first beautician, starting in 1933. In 1939, she married Dwight R. Wade, Sr., who still lives in Sevierville. Mrs. Wade passed away on January 13, 2004.
“She loved the park and was truly a lady of the mountains,” said Gary Wade, one of Mrs. Wade’s four sons. Gary Wade serves as President of the Board of Directors of Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Family members and friends have already made more than 70 gifts to Friends of the Smokies in memory of Mrs. Wade, totaling more than $5,800. At the family’s request, these funds will be used to establish the new Smokies Fund that will operate as an endowment fund to support the annual operations of Friends of the Smokies. Additional donations to the Smokies Fund will be encouraged, both from additional memorial gifts and from other contributions.
“We will be able to use the annual interest from this fund to support the day-to-day work that makes all of our other accomplishments possible,” said Jim Hart, Executive Director of Friends of the Smokies. “Mrs. Wade was a wonderful woman. We sincerely appreciate how much her family and friends have done to honor her and to support our efforts to help preserve and protect the Smokies.”
Additional donations to the Smokies Fund may be sent to Friends of the Smokies, PO Box 5650, Sevierville TN 37864-5650.
Friends of the Smokies, an independent, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, supports the National Park Service by raising funds and public awareness and providing volunteers for needed projects. More information is available online at www.friendsofthesmokies.org.
Tennessee Smokies Plate Says “RES-Q-ME”
(February 11, 2004 - Sevierville, TN) – Funds raised through the Friends of the Smokies specialty license plate program in Tennessee are coming to the aid of park visitors, black bears, and hemlock trees, but the question now is “Who will rescue the Smokies plates?”
A lawsuit filed on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee has attacked not only a controversial “Choose Life” plate, but also the State of Tennessee’s entire specialty license plate program. When the dust settles on this legal battle, Friends of the Smokies may end up losing its largest source of annual income. The Smokies plate in Tennessee earned the group more than $600,000 in 2003.
Friends of the Smokies uses these funds to support a wide variety of park projects and programs. The group earmarked $45,000 of the plate money last year for a new search-and-rescue vehicle for the park. Another $18,000 went toward the park’s Appalachian Trail Ridgerunner Program. The seasonal ridgerunners help educate hikers and campers along the trail, while also keeping shelters clean and identifying and resolving any emergencies or other problems on the Smokies’ portion of the Appalachian Trail.
Park visitors aren’t the only ones benefiting from the license plate program. The Friends group used nearly $34,000 last year to support black bear conservation efforts, including funds to help rescue and rehabilitate injured and orphaned black bears. Almost $14,000 of the plate money has been invested in efforts to save the park’s hemlock trees from a destructive exotic insect – the same pest that has already killed eighty percent of the hemlock trees in parts of Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.
“The license plate program helps the park in so many ways,” said Jim Hart, Executive Director of the Friends organization. “We are deeply concerned that an unrelated controversy might destroy this wonderful program.” The Friends group may intervene in the lawsuit and is exploring other possible solutions in the Tennessee legislature. “This money is vitally important to the park,” said Hart, “so we are doing everything we can to keep the program going.”
Until the courts or the legislature resolve the legal issues surrounding the “Choose Life” plate, Tennessee's entire specialty license plate program is still intact. “We are very thankful for all the thousands of people who have bought the Smokies plates in the last year,” said Hart. “The need in the park is as great as it has ever been. As long as the plate program is around, we hope Tennesseans will continue to show their strong support.”
The State of Tennessee offers the Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park specialty license plate through County Clerk’s Offices throughout the state. Of the $35 fee for the specialty plate, $31 goes to Friends of the Smokies to help support park projects and programs.
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