July 2021

Summer

It’s hard to believe that summer is almost half way thru. There is still time to visit one of the 400 National Parks in the United States. Our top recommendation is to visit Yellowstone National Park.

Yellowstone was established on March 1, 1872 -- making it the world’s first national park. When President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act into law, it protected more than 2 million acres of mountain wilderness, amazing geysers, and vibrant landscapes for future generations to enjoy. As we celebrate Yellowstone’s birthday, check out these interesting facts about our iconic national park.

Half the world’s hydrothermal features are found at Yellowstone. Yellowstone National Park preserves more than 10,000 hydrothermal features -- an extraordinary collection of hot springs, mudpots, fumaroles, travertine terraces and -- of course -- geysers. Microorganisms called thermophiles -- meaning “heat loving” -- live in these features and give the park its brilliant colors.

Yellowstone is a super volcano. One of the world’s largest active volcanoes lies beneath Yellowstone. The first major eruption of the Yellowstone volcano occurred 2.1 million years ago and covered more than 5,790 square miles with ash. That's among the largest volcanic eruptions known, and marks Yellowstone as a super volcano (a term used to describe any volcano with an eruption of more than 240 cubic miles of magma).

While the volcano is still active, it has been about 70,000 years since the last lava flow. With the U.S. Geological Survey and University of Utah, the National Park Service established the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory in 2001 to monitor volcanic and seismic activity in the area.

Source: Wikipedia and National Parks website.

Scholarships Update

This year, the PACCF Scholarship Committee awarded 20 students Richard Gorecki Scholarships and 5 students Majer & Lakowski Families Memorial Scholarships. The total amount of scholarships is over $100,000

Gorecki Scholarships are granted to full-time students enrolled as a sophomore, junior, senior or post-graduate in an accredited undergraduate or graduate program at a college or university, with a minimum GPA of 3.0 out of 4.0.

Majer and Lakowski Memorial Scholarships are granted to full-time undergraduate or graduate students majoring in either engineering or business administration at a public state university or college.

We will present our Scholars in September 2021. If you would like to know more about our programs visit our website. Or sign up for our monthly newsletter.