Silver Spring, MD - The National Marine Sanctuary Foundation is pleased to announce that it has partnered with MeadWestvaco’s Consumer and Office Products Group, to produce a line of calendar products featuring unique underwater photography of our National Marine Sanctuaries. Each calendar purchase will help create conservation-based education and outreach programs designed to preserve, protect and promote our nation’s ocean and Great Lakes treasures. Products range from $3.00 to $14.00, with a portion of each sale donated to the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation.

“Not only are these calendars a compilation of amazing underwater photographs, they are a dynamic tool for educating the American public about our National Marine Sanctuaries and the need for more ocean conservation efforts,” said Lori Arguelles, Executive Director of the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation. “We are extremely fortunate to have MeadWestvaco as our partner in this endeavor for it is their vision that will assist us in realizing tremendous fundraising success.”

The product line includes six different 14-month calendar items: a monthly pocket planner, a twin-loop calendar, a saddle stitched calendar, a vertical calendar, a monthly desk blotter, and an address/telephone book. Inside each product there are brilliant color photos of the unique underwater world of our National Marine Sanctuaries. Consumers will also find information about each sanctuary, including where it is located and what type of marine animals or cultural resources reside within its borders. The calendars include photographs donated by both amateur and well-known, professional photographers, including National Marine Sanctuary Trustee Bob Talbot.

“When we saw the quality and content of the photographs that the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation could provide, we knew immediately that we could develop an entire product line unequaled in beauty and purpose,” said John R. Redente, Director of Promotional Products, Consumer and Office Products Group.

The money raised through calendar sales will allow the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation the ability to meet several of its objectives, including developing a national ocean-focused educational curricula, creating informational tools including exhibitory for sanctuary visitors centers, furthering the efforts of telepresence technology to project real-time images from sanctuary waters to school groups, and coordinating national, educational symposia including Capitol Hill Oceans Week.

For more information about and photographs of these calendar products or to make a purchase, log onto the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation’s website at www.NMSFocean.org.

MeadWestvaco Corporation, headquartered in Stamford, Conn., is a leading global producer of packaging, coated and specialty papers, consumer and office products, and specialty chemicals. The company operates in 29 countries and serves customers in nearly 100 nations, and has been recognized for economic, social and environmental sustainability through selection for the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes. MeadWestvaco manages strategically located forestlands according to stringent environmental standards and in conformity with the Sustainable Forestry Initiative®.