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OTTUMWA, IOWA -- I’m sure you could think of $30,000 ways to spend the money, hopefully some of which might be as generous as the actions of Cargill.

As part of their celebration of “Earth Day, Everyday,” Cargill Meat Solutions and Cargill Eddyville joined to donate the gift to The City of Ottumwa’s Memorial Park.

“Cargill firmly believes in giving back to the communities in which we do business,” said Kaye DeLange, Cargill Eddyville Facility Manager. ”Through the initiative of several dedicated employees, both the Cargill Meat Solutions Facility and the Eddyville Corn-Milling Facility, we were able to combine our funds and leverage a corporate match to provide for the renovations that will be put in place in this park.”

Promoting community relationships and environmental stewardship, the money will be used toward improvements in the Memorial Park.

“We're going to replace the pedestrian bridge, [which] goes from one side of the ravine to the other in Memorial Park,” said Gene Rathje, Ottumwa Park Director/Beach manager. “We're also going to use the pond as an environmental learning project. The pond has a big problem with siltation and we're going to try to fix that, and we're also going to beautify the pond with an aerator and also [add] some vegetation. We're going to repave the floor of the picnic shelter on the other side of the park with concrete and do some other minor improvements to Memorial Park in general.”

Cargill employees do not want the gift’s legacy to end after the park is built.

“We don't want the project to just be something that, you know it's going to make the park look better and the kids can play, but we also want to put the education piece into that, so people can come and learn about water, purification and what we do in our plants as far as water purification,” said Pati West, Cargill Environmental Coordinator. “And, [we also want to educate on] sources of contaminated water, the things we do during every day life that can end up in the creeks and things like that.”

Cargill celebrates “Earth Day, Everyday” from Earth Day, April 22^nd, to World Environment Day, June 6th, every year. In the past they have passed out flower-seed packets, planted trees and cleaned-up river banks.