park telethon held

     Tune in for the broadcast of the Friends Across the Mountains Telethon at 7 p.m. on Aug. 12 on Knoxville’s WBIR-TV Channel 10 and Asheville’s WLOS-TV Channel 13.  
     Proceeds benefit Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  Over the telethon’s sixteen year history, it has raised more than $2.2 million to help preserve and protect Great Smoky Mountains National Park.    
     This year, viewers can call in pledges of support while being entertained and educated about the Smokies’ new Trails Forever program (www.SmokiesTrailsForever.org) and the extremely popular elk herd in Cataloochee (read more at http://www.nps.gov/grsm/naturescience/elk.htm).   
     Funds from the Friends Across the Mountains Telethon support many park needs, including the ongoing fight to save the park’s eastern hemlock trees from the exotic, invasive hemlock woolly adelgid.
     Friends President Jim Hart explains the importance of giving, “Great Smoky Mountains National Park is our most visited national park, and it does not charge an entrance fee.  If you love the Smokies, you can help take care of them by giving during the Friends Across the Mountains Telethon.  We believe it’s the only telethon benefitting a national park.”
     Since 1993, Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park has raised more than $30 million to help fund educational programs for area schoolchildren; preserve historic log cabins and churches in the Smokies; protect wildlife like black bears, brook trout and elk; and improve hiking trails and backcountry shelters.
     For more information, please visit www.FriendsOfTheSmokies.org.  To donate to the 2010 Friends Across the Mountains Telethon go to http://shop.FriendsOfTheSmokies.org/Telethon.html.