Mason Neck State Park Named One of ‘America’s Favorite Parks’

Mason Neck (Photo credit: vastateparksstaff)

Governor and First Lady McAuliffe join Virginia park-goers to celebrate the park’s rec

ognition and kick off statewide outdoor challenge made possible by a $50,000 grant from Coca-Cola

Lorton, VA, May 21, 2014 – Governor Terry McAuliffe and First Lady Dorothy McAuliffe joined Virginia park-goers to celebrate Mason Neck State Park’s designation as one of “America’s Favorite Parks” as part of the Coca-Cola Company’s America Is Your Park campaign. The Governor and First Lady also launched a new outdoor challenge at Mason Neck to encourage visitors to enjoy their stay at the park and get active at the same time. Coca-Cola awarded Mason Neck the second-place prize, a $50,000 recreation grant which will be used for the challenge that was launched today.

“Virginia’s state parks are a tremendous economic asset for the Commonwealth and a great resource for Virginians who want to get outdoors and get active this summer. On behalf of the Commonwealth of Virginia, I want to thank Coca-Cola for supporting our parks and encouraging people to get active outdoors,” said Governor McAuliffe. “Our thanks also go to those who voted for Mason Neck and particularly the Friends of Mason Neck State Park who organized a vigorous and successful get-out-the vote campaign.”

Mason Neck earned more than 278,000 votes through the support of park-goers who helped the park finish second in Coca-Cola’s America Is Your Park campaign by logging their daily fitness activities and rallying the local community to support the park.  The first-place winner was Veteran’s Memorial Park in Moore, Okla., which the city is rebuilding after the park was devastated by a tornado that hit the town last year.

“Through the Coca-Cola America Is Your Park campaign, our goal was to inspire people across the country to rediscover the joy of being active outdoors at their favorite park,” said Brendan Walshe, East Region Sales Operations Vice President, Coca-Cola Refreshments. “To continue encouraging Virginians to get active, Coca-Cola is partnering with Virginia State Parks to launch their Outdoor Challenge.”

Mason Neck developed interactive displays that educate park guests about ways to be active at the park and the health advantages of recreating outdoors. Challenge participants also will be able to track the calories they burn and other health benefits they accrue as they get active at the park.

The Outdoor Challenge is designed for all ages, providing activities geared for kids, teens, adults and seniors.  The challenges are also divided into easy, moderate and difficult categories. 

“Visiting our Virginia State Parks can be a fun and rewarding part of maintaining active, healthy lifestyles,” said Virginia First Lady Dorothy McAuliffe. “I particularly like that this challenge can be tailored to family members of all ages.”

Mason Neck is the first state park to launch the Outdoor Challenge.  Virginia State Parks plans to roll out the challenge at every state park across the Commonwealth.

Joe Elton, Deputy Director for Operations for the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation continued, “In the modern age, we have all become dependent on electronic devices. We’re now using that same technology to educate, entertain and inspire people about our natural and cultural treasures and showcase the fun, health and well being benefits of outdoor recreation. We’re really fighting fire, with fire.”

The Virginia State Park system is managed by DCR.

The recreational grant from Coca-Cola is just a first step in the development of the statewide outdoor challenge. The Virginia Association for Parks, a statewide nonprofit organization that supports state and national parks in Virginia, is undertaking a fundraising effort for visitor center displays across the state. For more information on the campaign go to www.virginiaparks.org.

Tell Tyson to Stop Torturing Pigs

For three weeks I lived a lie to expose the truth while working undercover at a Tyson hog factory farm in Oklahoma. What I saw was a living nightmare.

Thousands of pregnant pigs spent nearly their entire lives crammed into cages so small they could barely move. They couldn’t turn around, walk or even lie down comfortably.

 I saw pigs with open wounds and bloody pressure sores from rubbing against the bars of their metal cages or lying on hard concrete.

Pigs would constantly ram their heads against their tiny stalls or spend hour after hour, day after day, biting the bars of their cages out of frustration.

 These intelligent and social animals were literally driven mad in these hellish conditions.

I also saw workers violently slamming piglets headfirst into the concrete and leaving them to suffer and slowly die.

 Some of the piglets were spiked against the ground like footballs.

 I found one piglet still conscious and breathing in a pile of dead piglets. Nobody bothered to make sure she was dead before just throwing her away.

Piglets had their tails cut off and their testicles ripped out of their bodies without any painkillers.

 Sick and injured pigs with severe, bleeding wounds or infections were left to languish without veterinary care.

I saw workers gouge the eyes of pigs, violently hit them with wooden boards, and in one case, even throw a heavy bowling ball at a pig’s head.

 Such sadistic cruelty was widespread at this Tyson factory farm.While this brutality and neglect is shocking,

 I think the worst abuse these animals endure is being immobilized in tiny, maggot-infested gestation crates.

 Animal welfare experts around the world agree that these crates are inherently cruel and should be phased out. In fact, gestation crates are so cruel they have been banned in nine U.S. states, as well as in the entire European Union.

Responding to consumer concerns, nearly every major food provider in the country, including McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Chipotle, Safeway, Kroger, Kmart and Costco, have demanded their suppliers do away with these cruel crates.

Major pork producers, such as Smithfield and Hormel, have committed to phasing out gestation crates, and Cargill is already 50 percent crate-free.

But not Tyson.

Tyson continues to torture pigs by cramming them in cages barely larger than their own bodies for nearly their entire lives.

Thank you.

"Pete"

Undercover Investigator

Okay, so exactly where is Animal Control or any of the animal rights groups here on this?  Why are they ignoring these kinds of issues but making issues out of areas that are not real issues at all against regular people?  Because it's all a smoke screen?  The above is the reason we are supposed to have animal rights groups.  Bottom line here is we are talking about food.  We should be taking better care of the stock of food we eat.  There is no reason to torture pigs, in fact it's unhealthy for us that we do so as it does cause a contamination of our food supply.  

  The answer here is simple.  Never buy Tyson pork products.  Put them out of the pork business.  It's not up to government to do something about this.  It's up to the people who are informed to vote with our dollars the correct way.  If you support this kind of behavior, buy Tyson pork.  If you do not support this kind of behavior, do not buy Tyson anything.  Constitutional law prevents the government from getting involved here, but they do it anyway.  Government is not supposed to recognize groups of any form, yet we all know that this right of the people has been well usurped.  That does not mean we are still not in control.  Again, do not buy Tyson products if you do not support this kind of behavior.

  

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