CITGO Awards Grants for Restoration Programs in Celebration of National Estuaries Week
HOUSTON, September 28, 2017 /3BL Media/ - For the third year in a row, CITGO Petroleum Corporation has awarded eight grants to local government agencies and nonprofits in celebration of National Estuaries Week, which took place Sept. 16-23. Through a partnership between CITGO and Restore America’s Estuaries (RAE), each grant will fund the organization’s restoration programs, environmental clean-ups, tree plantings and educational events.
The following eight groups are CITGO grant program recipients:
- Alabama Coastal Foundation, Mobile, Alabama
- Keep Pinellas Beautiful, Pinellas County, Florida
- Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful, Tampa, Florida
- Launch Leeville, Leeville, Louisiana
- Manatee County Parks and Natural Resources Department, Bradenton, Florida
- Marine Conservation Club, Brooklyn, Mississippi
- Pearl River Keeper, Madison, Mississippi
- Sarasota Bay Watch, Sarasota, Florida
“Through the CITGO grant program, RAE and CITGO are able to advance our common goals of community engagement and environmental stewardship. With the support of CITGO, funds from the grants will support more than 3,400 volunteers as they clean nearly 450 miles of shorelines and restore 65 acres of coastal land,” said RAE President and CEO Jeff Benoit.
“CITGO partners with organizations like RAE to collaborate on projects that support our commitment to environmental restoration and community service in areas we call home,” said José Pereira, Acting President and CEO of CITGO Petroleum Corporation.
CITGO has refineries in coastal areas including Lake Charles, La. and Corpus Christi, TX, and supports National Estuaries Week as part of its restoration and conservation initiative, Caring for Our Coast. In 2014, to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, CITGO launched Caring for Our Coast as a year-long environmental stewardship program which continued for years to come. Caring for Our Coast initiatives developed along the Gulf Coast including a series of events surrounding restoration of coastal and wetland regions. In Lake Charles, La., over the course of three years, volunteers restored 13 miles of beach, planting more than 163,000 plugs of dune grass to restore the Cameron Parish shoreline damaged in Hurricane Rita. In Corpus Christi, TX, volunteers organized a beach cleanup at the Oso Bay Wetlands Preserve and Learning center to collect trash and restore native vegetation. Since it began, Caring for Our Coast has impacted more than 300,000 people and restored more than 5,100 acres.
About CITGO
CITGO, based in Houston, is a refiner, transporter and marketer of transportation fuels, lubricants, petrochemicals and other industrial products. The company is owned by CITGO Holding, Inc., an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. For more information, visit www.CITGO.com.
