MILWAUKEE PUBLIC THEATRE RECEIVES $1,000 PLUM CREEK FOUNDATION GRANT

WISCONSIN RAPIDS, Wis.--October 8, 2009--The Plum Creek Foundation recently awarded $1,000 to the Milwaukee Public Theatre to help fund a seven-county tour of a production on the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and its history in Wisconsin.

The CCC was a public work relief program for unemployed men, focused on natural resource conservation from 1933 to 1942.  At the time, the program was a part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, designed to aid relief of high unemployment stemming from the Great Depression.  The Milwaukee Public Theatre performance focused on the lives of the members of the CCC, the realities they faced during the Depression and the positive environmental achievements reached during that time. 

“Our nation is currently experiencing double-digit unemployment rates that are creating tent communities of transient and homeless families on the West Coast,” said Barbara Leigh, artistic and producing director of the theatre.  “The Great Depression and the CCC legacy are important benchmarks in history, and we are grateful to the Plum Creek Foundation for helping us continue to share these vital stories.  We hope they will encourage creative thinking about how to handle today’s hard times.”

The theater group performed in Portage, Vilas, Price, Marathon, Ashland, Dane and Milwaukee Counties to help raise awareness of the CCC and foster interest in preserving the human and natural resources of Wisconsin.  The Milwaukee Public Theatre is a professional not-for-profit touring company that increases awareness of current social issues, promotes cultural diversity and provides healing arts resources.

The mission of the Plum Creek Foundation is to provide philanthropic contributions to support and improve the general welfare of life in the communities that Plum Creek serves.  The Foundation board meets quarterly to review applications submitted from organizations in the company’s operating communities.  Visit the Community Involvement page on Plum Creek’s Web site at www.plumcreek.com to download an application.

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Plum Creek is the largest and most geographically diverse private landowner in the nation with approximately 7 million acres of timberlands in major timber producing regions of the United States and wood products manufacturing facilities in the Northwest.  For more information, visit www.plumcreek.com/wisconsin.