Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 25, 1994                   TAG: 9403250143
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

PARKWAY GROUP HONORS SUPPORTERS

The Friends' Roanoke-area Virginia Conservation Awards, which will be an annual event, were presented at a luncheon attended by Parkway Superintendent Gary Everhardt and other park officials.

Everhardt stressed the need for public/private partnerships like the Coalition for the Blue Ridge Parkway, a two-state effort with North Carolina to protect the parkway through voluntary guidelines, uniform county zoning and other means.

"This may be one of the last chances to protect this great national treasure," he said. "The parkway's going to do everything humanly possible . . . to make sure the Coalition for the Blue Ridge Parkway will be successful."

Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway was one of the groups that first pushed for a group like the coalition, but members of the coalition credited the Roanoke Times & World-News' editorial push as the genesis for an organized effort of preservation.

Also honored with a Frasier fir fledgling and a plaque in the form of a stake - to recognize each as stakeholders in the parkway - were: Sally Auman, Eloise and Frank Vass and Millie Smith.