U.S. Department of the Interior
Office of the Secretary

Stephanie Hanna & Mary Helen Thompson (202) 208-6416


For Release: February 8, 1996

Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt will host a kick-off rally on Saturday, February 10, to ignite a broad-based and community effort to restore the extensively-damaged historic C & O (Chesapeake and Ohio) Canal.

The "C & O Restoration Rally" will highlight large and small-scale volunteer efforts and contributions that are already being offered, as well as provide information on how communities, organizations and individual volunteers can contribute time or financial donations to the restoration of the canal.

"The terrible winter weather in the east and midwest has created many victims," Babbitt said. "As Secretary of the Interior, it is not only my duty but my personal desire to do anything I can to ensure that damage to national park facilities, other conservation lands, and urban greenspaces is repaired as quickly as possible."

Babbitt will be joined by National Park Service Director Roger Kennedy, Senators Barbara Mikulski and Paul Sarbanes, Congresswoman Connie Morella and Montgomery County Executive Douglas Duncan as well as volunteers from the Student Conservation Association, the Boy and Girl Scouts of America and other groups already involved in conservation efforts.

The C & O Restoration Rally will be held outside the Visitors Center (Great Falls Tavern) at Great Falls, on the Maryland side of the Potomac. The visitors center is located at 11710 MacArthur Blvd., Potomac, Maryland. Due to extensive damage to the canal and adjacent support facilities, the event will be limited to media and participants. It will begin on Saturday at 10:00 a.m.