The leaders of the two primary Great Smoky Mountains National Park partners were recently presented with the Department of Interior Citizen’s Award for Exceptional Service.  
Terry Maddox, Executive Director, Great Smoky Mountains Association (GSMA) and Jim Hart, President, Friends of the Smokies, were recognized for the outstanding support to the Smokies and the National Park Service.
Since 1990 Maddox has lead the GSMA, the non-profit corporation which provides education to Smokies visitors and material support to the Park through sale of interpretive media at Park bookstores and through wholesale marketing of these products outside the Park.  Under his leadership the Association has grown from a small book retailer to a major author and publisher of award-winning educational products including books, field guides, maps, videos, podcasts and web-based material.
In the 20 years of Maddox’s leadership, the support to the Park has grown from just over $350,000 annually to over $1.8 million. This assistance has included in-kind contributions, such as providing staff to operate the Park library, the Backcountry Reservation Office and the millers at Cable Mill in Cades Cove and Mingus Mill near Oconaluftee as well as offering the quarterly newspaper free of charge.  Most recently, the Association provided $3 million to construct the new Oconaluftee Visitor Center, the first dedicated Park visitor center in North Carolina and its only cultural history museum.  The grand opening of the visitor center was in April of this year.
Hart has served as president of the philanthropic/fundraising partner, Friends of the Smokies, since 2002. Under his guidance, the Friends has substantially increased the public’s awareness of the value of the Park and the various threats, such as the destructive hemlock woolly adelgid, which threatens the Park’s future protection.
Over the nine years of Hart’s tenure, Friends donations have swelled from about $1.8 million a year to over $3.5 million.  Their total support since their founding in 1993 now stands at over $33 million.  Working with the Friends, they provided a portion of the financial support to build the Park’s new Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified (at the Gold level) Twin Creeks Science and Education Center.  More recently, they also funded the $500,000 cost of designing and fabricating all the maps, exhibits and other informational media needed to equip the  Oconaluftee Visitor Center.  

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