May 10, 2005 – Shirley Luna

Native Plant Center receives Meadows Foundation grant

Stephen F. Austin State University has received a grant worth up to $107,000 from The Meadows Foundation of Dallas. The grant will benefit SFA's Pineywoods Native Plant Center, as well as East Texas school students and teachers.

The university will use the funding to train 75 East Texas-area teachers each year for the next two years to use inquiry-based environmental science teaching and will provide field-based science instruction to 7,700 school-age children in the first year. In the second year of the grant, instruction will be provided to 8,500 children.

Through the Meadows Foundation grant, the plant center and the SFA Mast Arboretum will provide hands-on, outdoor activities to improve the science literacy of school students and their teachers.

"These activities will allow students to become actively engaged in asking questions, seeking solutions, designing investigations, and then asking new questions," said Elyce Rodewald, education coordinator of the plant center and arboretum. "Students involved in inquiry learning are encouraged to cultivate problem-solving skills by developing an understanding of how to make observations, collect and analyze information, synthesize information, and draw conclusions."

Grant funds also will be used at the native plant center, located at 2900 Raguet St., to complete site plans and pre-design work for an indoor environmental education center and, by Sept. 30, 2006, to complete an additional two miles of walking trails.

"We have about a half mile of trail at the plant center, mostly surfaced with grass or pine bark," said Dr. Dave Creech, SFA agriculture professor and director of the Pineywoods Native Plant Center. "This project will enable us to surface this trail and extend it to other areas of the site and down the hill to LaNana Creek."

The SFA Pineywoods Native Plant Center has been a project of the SFA Mast Arboretum since 2000, in association with the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture. Together, the plant center and arboretum provide nearly 60 acres for the study and display of exotic and native plant horticulture.

The university has received $77,000 in funding for the first year of the grant, according to Dr. Jerry Holbert, vice president for university advancement.

"Funding for the second year is $30,000 and must be matched dollar-for-dollar in new donations to the university specifically designated for the project," Holbert said.  “This grant will enable SFA to greatly enhance and expand its environmental education program. Literally thousands of children in East Texas will benefit from the generous support of The Meadows Foundation.”
The Meadows Foundation is a private philanthropic institution established in 1948 by Algur H. and Virginia Meadows to benefit the people of Texas. The foundation's mission is to assist the people and institutions of Texas to improve the quality and circumstances of life for themselves and future generations.

Algur Meadows built General American Oil Co. of Texas into one of the nation's most successful independent oil and gas production companies. Believing that his own life was greatly enriched by giving, Meadows generously shared his wealth with many charitable causes benefiting the people of the state that had been so kind to him. Wishing to share the joy of giving with their extended family, both living and yet unborn, the Algur and Virginia Meadows established The Meadows Foundation so that their philanthropy would continue in perpetuity, under the guidance and direction of family members and trusted advisers.

Since its inception, the foundation's assets have grown to a current value in excess of $800 million, and it has dispersed more than $430 million in grants and direct charitable expenditures to more than 2,000 Texas institutions and agencies. Foundation grants support work in the fields of arts and culture, civic and public affairs, education, health and human services.

The foundation also has a particular philanthropic interest in three areas: public education (particularly in the areas of early child development, enhanced reading skills and teacher preparation), mental health and the environment. It seeks to develop a philanthropic spirit among high school and middle school students and has awarded in excess of $2 million to more than 200 schools in North Texas whose students planned and carried out community service programs.

The foundation looks for programs and services that employ imaginative, innovative ways to solve community problems through projects leading to organizational self-sufficiency and in capital plans that enable agencies to flourish. It seeks to support projects that can alleviate pain, enhance social skills and promote better human relations.

Among its philanthropic initiatives, the foundation has established the Wilson historic District near downtown Dallas, where more than 27 nonprofit agencies are provided rent-free office space, as well as management and technical assistance, in elegantly restored turn-of-the-century homes, buildings and new structures. Considered a benchmark for historic preservation and a model project in which to house nonprofit agencies, the Wilson Block within the 22-acre Wilson Historic District, has earned a listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Meadows Foundation has received numerous awards for both its philanthropy and its management. It was the first recipient of the Texas Medal of the Arts for sustained support of arts and culture in Texas and was named Outstanding Foundation of the Year by the National Society of Fund Raising Executives.

For more information about the foundation, visit the Web site at www.mfi.org. For information about the environmental education programs at SFA, call (936) 468-1832.

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