Want to Help  Florida LAKEWATCH get a new home? You Can Make a Difference

Help Build A Home For Florida LAKEWATCH and Secure the Legacy! The Situation – LAKEWATCH, founded in 1986, is a Florida institution without a building! The Florida Legislature, in 1991, designated Florida LAKEWATCH as the statewide volunteer water quality monitoring program. Volunteer efforts have now built the State’s most comprehensive and cost-effective lake and coastal monitoring program, LAKEWATCH coordinates over 2000 volunteers sampling 600 lakes and 50 coastal sites on a monthly basis. LAKEWATCH has achieved local, statewide, and national recognition for its extensive water resources monitoring program. LAKEWATCH also has a youth education program Fishing for Success that won the USDA Secretary’s Honor Award. FFS provides aquatic education to over 15,000 youth per year. So now after 20 very successful years of service to Florida and an expanding mission, it is time to insure that future Floridians will benefit from the LAKEWATCH legacy by giving it a permanent building of its own!

Here’s the problem – Florida LAKEWATCH needs a home with adequate facilities. The staff is spread among many inadequate buildings, resulting in inefficiency and difficulties in providing services to the volunteers. Building a home for LAKEWATCH will insure the program’s viability for the next 20 years, but given shifting state priorities and fiscal constraints, a “Home” building can only be built in a timely manner if private donations can be obtained! Here’s the solution – The State of Florida will match dollar for dollar private funds raised for a dedicated LAKEWATCH building. We are asking you to make a tax-deductible donation to our building fund. Our goal is to raise $1,000,000. With the matching funds from the State of Florida, and property donated by the University of Florida, LAKEWATCH will have a workable cost -effective home

Opportunities to Help Build a Home for Florida LAKEWATCH: Download Brochure Letter from a Volunteer Contact: Dan Canfield, Dept. of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 7922 NW 71st St, Gainesville, FL 32653 (352-392-9617 ext 246, decan@ufl.eu)	• Join the Florida LAKEWATCH Hall of Honor Brick Paver Program • Florida LAKEWATCH 2008 Calendar Photography Contest • Calendars will be available October 22. Order Now