SALISBURY COVE - Martha and Wistar Morris of Northeast Harbor and Villanova, Pennsylvania, have given the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory $1 million as a challenge grant to increase the Lab’s endowment. The gift, the second million-dollar donation to MDIBL in 2007, was announced at MDIBL’s Annual Meeting held in Salisbury Cove on July 26. Wistar Morris, a trustee of MDIBL, explained that he and his wife made the challenge gift because “MDIBL’s recent growth has been exciting and productive". With this gift, Martha and I hope to bring recognition to how small our endowment actually is and to stimulate other such gifts, so that our output of quality research and education can continue to grow.” MDIBL focuses on biomedical research on marine species and offers research training and fellowships for high school, undergraduate, and graduate students. Terence Boylan, Chair of the MDIBL Board of Trustees, said “The Morrises’ incredible generosity is fueling MDIBL’s explosive leap into the future. Once again, Wistar has perceived a critical need and made it possible for us to meet it.” The Morrises previously gave a $500,000 challenge gift for the new laboratory building that is now being constructed at MDIBL. Jerilyn Bowers, Development Director of MDIBL, reports that $100,000 has already been donated toward the challenge, which she believes will be met by the end of 2008. These unrestricted endowment funds will help cover the Lab’s operating expenses well into the future. Successfully meeting the challenge will nearly double MDIBL’s endowment, taking it from $2.9 to $5 million. The Annual Meeting was upbeat. Dr. John N. Forrest Jr., director of MDIBL, noted that the Lab has had “another banner year” with the new building under construction, the two million-dollar gifts, and successful fundraising events. He singled out a birthday party in Delaware given by an 11 year-old visitor to the Lab, who, unbeknownst to the Lab, requested gifts for MDIBL instead of herself. The party resulted in more than $500 in donations. The year was also scientifically successful, with the completion of the sequencing of the sea urchin genome, continued progress on culturing marine stem cell lines, huge strides in crustacean genomics, and a $4.5 million dollar grant from the National Institutes of Health for the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database.Download this release (PDF, 88k) |
