"Friends" Thanks All Contributors to the Caponi Project

We wish to send a warm note of thanks to all supporters of the Caponi Art Park preservation.

A dream has been realized in Eagan. It is both the dream of a pair of special citizens and the hope of an entire community.

As Friends of the Eagan Core Greenway, we extend our sincerest gratitude to Tony & Cheryl Caponi. The Caponis have spent a lifetime developing a superb and inspiring art park, an innovative outdoor amphitheater, as well as numerous enriching programs for children and families. We can only imagine the inertia that would have been involved if a public institution took on the task of creating a sculpture park located in a beautifully wooded sixty-acre setting. The Caponi Art Park & Learning Center will remain a tremendous local resource for both present and future generations. It also represents the invaluable centerpiece of the Eagan Core Greenway.

The Art Park has been secured thanks to a broad partnership facilitated by the Trust for Public Land and "Friends." It is thus important to express our gratitude to these numerous partners of this successful project. They include the Eagan City Council and the City's Administration, the Dakota County Board of Commissioners and the Dakota County Farmland and Natural Areas Program, the State of Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Outdoor Recreation Program, the Metro Wildlife Corridor Program and the Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCMR) as well as the Caponi Art Park Board. We also acknowledge our volunteers who distributed 1,500 Caponi Art Park/Eagan Core Greenway fliers last year and went door to door in a community outreach initiative to raise awareness and support for the Park.

While there still remains the challenge of fund-raising (the Art Park Board holds a mortgage on half of the Park's 60 acres), this land transfer will ensure that this precious open space will remain accessible to the public in the very heart of Eagan. It represents a wonderful gift to our community.

With heartfelt appreciation, on behalf of all Friends of the Eagan Core Greenway,

David Brunet, Jack Conrad, Laura Hedlund, John Ward

Friends of the Eagan Core Greenway