Tourje Fund Supports Blue Ridge Nature Trail

October 30, 2008: The Jessie Osgood Tourje Memorial Fund recently provided a $1,000 grant to assist with the development of the Andrew Sienko Sr. Memorial Nature Trail on the Blue Ridge School District campus in New Milford. The Tourje family of Forest City, proprietors of NEP Telephone Company, established this endowment with The Community Foundation of Susquehanna & Wyoming Counties to honor their matriarch, mother of retired President Edward Tourje. The endowment is intended to provide annual grants to the Blue Ridge, Forest City Regional, Mountain View, and Susquehanna Community School Districts to support unexpected or unfunded projects that will benefit students.

The Nature Trail, recently named in honor of Mr. Sienko who was a long-time supporter of the school district, is still being cleared and marked, and this grant from the Tourje Fund will assist with the expenses of developing outdoor classrooms and learning stations for biology and ecology classes. Furthermore, the Nature Trail will be open to the public and will include flora identification tags and sitting benches. Students and faculty have been involved with creating the Nature Trail. Retired Art Teacher, Dede Tersteeg, inquired about potential funding from The Community Foundation, which in turn received approval from the Tourje family to assist this project with a grant from their endowment. All involved are pleased to help provide this support to enhance the learning opportunities for Blue Ridge students and for the enjoyment of the local community.