By Terica Ginther
President, Deception Pass Park Foundation
Since 2005, Deception Pass Park Foundation has worked tirelessly to support Deception Pass State Park, but this past year was certainly unprecedented. Budget cuts, park closures, and ever-changing restrictions all presented new challenges and new ways for the us to support the Park.
Despite the pandemic, we were able to focus on a new opportunity – creating and managing The Lake Store at Cranberry Lake. The Lake Store allowed us to provide campers and park visitors with staples to improve their park experience. All of the money raised in the store assists with facility, trail, and programming improvements in Deception Pass State Park. Overall, the store was a great success and will remain foundational to our fundraising efforts moving forward.
In addition to operating the Lake Store we were able to provide the financial means to improve and adapt educational programs in the park. Our incredible Interpretive Specialist, Joy, created new programs and was able to reach over 700 children via virtual field trips. While many were not able to visit the park in person this year, Joy’s vision and adaptability was able to bring outdoor education to computers and phones nationwide. The future of education in the Park is looking bright with completion of the Deception Pass State Park Junior Ranger Booklet. This resource will educate young visitors with park focused activities.
These educational programs reinforce the value of interpretive specialist staffing for Deception Pass State Park and have led to our recent commitment to provide over $70,000 to Deception Pass State Park for staffing in 2021. We firmly believe in the Park’s staff and view these individuals as the heart of the park. It is through the contributions of our generous donors and the sales at The Lake Store that we are able to support these vital programs.
While Deception Pass State Park and Washington State Parks saw record breaking numbers in the summer of 2019, decreased overall visitorship in 2020 will impact the budget moving forward for our beloved park. The Park continues to be asked to do more with less and our Foundation is committed to supporting Deception Pass State Park in any way we can. In fact, our role in offsetting financial losses allows the park to continue operating at such a high level and providing instrumental services to visitors.
We extend our appreciation for your past support and request your consideration of supporting the park again this year. As you can see, your contributions make a big difference! We could not have made these commitments without the support of all of our annual donors and volunteers who love Deception Pass State Park.
All of your contributions stay here, at OUR park! Should you wish to make a donation through our website, please go to deceptionpassfoundation.org and click on the Donate to DPPF button at the top.
