The Yellowstone National Park nonprofit, Yellowstone Forever, raised $1 million in three days. The $1 million was matched dollar for dollar using federal funds.
Yellowstone Forever found out last minute that the National Park Foundation had the opportunity to match up to a million dollars if the money could be raised. But there was a catch: an end of September deadline. Yellowstone Forever InterimPresident and CEO John Walda said they were able to raise $1 million in three days.
"The thing that's really inspiring about that is that the people who were there and not only made pledges themselves but reached out to others who had been donors to Yellowstone Park in the past. They were all confident that we could reach that goal and inspired by the notion that their money would be doubled," he said.
Yellowstone National Park will use the $2 million to start work on the North Entrance Gate in Gardiner, Montana. Walda said this project has been a high priority for the park.
"There has been a bottleneck problem at that entrance now for years. And I know that the park was looking for ways to allocate other sources of revenue towards that north entrance project for over the over the last year."
Walda said the park could start on the North Entrance Project as early as the summer.
Have a question about this story? Contact the reporter, Kamila Kudelska, at kkudelsk@uwyo.edu.
