Zoo's aquarium nets $7M gift

What's in a name?

For the Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium, a cool $7 million.

That's how much the PPG Foundation paid for the naming rights to the rechristened Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium.

During an announcement Wednesday, zoo President Barbara Baker wore a lottery winner's smile. The donation is the largest in the zoo's 104-year history.

"We're debt-free," Baker said. "Eight years ago when we privatized the zoo, we were wondering if we could make it at all. And here we are with a $7 million dollar gift. It really speaks to how the community feels about the zoo."

There are no plans to sell the naming rights to the zoo, Baker said.

Why $7 million?

"It just seemed like a good, round amount," said Jeff Gilbert, executive director of the PPG Industries Foundation and vice president of government and community affairs for PPG Industries.

"The more we thought about the zoo, the more we recognized its uniqueness to western Pennsylvania, the fact that it was very much compatible with the values of PPG as the company and with the values of the PPG Foundation," he said. "It's not only a tremendous recreational site that offers a great bargain for a family, but every time a family comes, that family is educated by learning more about animals, learning more about the environment, how every living thing kind of lives together and is dependent on one another."

The zoo will receive annual payments of $700,000 a year for 10 years. The lion's share will be used to pay off the remaining $4 million debt from the $17.4 million aquarium renovation. The remainder will go to expanding the aquarium's educational programs, which include in-school classroom presentations, teacher workshops, community outreach programs, visits from the Zoomobile and programs for children at risk.

More than 9 million students use the on-site education programs each year at the zoo in Highland Park. More than 3.5 million do so for free.

With the debt paid off, the zoo can put more of its operating profits toward new projects, including a South America/Asia exhibit and a 10,000-square-foot veterinary hospital that would be built on the crest of a hill on a former exhibit site.

"It basically takes the pressure off," said board member Ken McCrory. "We could have paid it off, but it would have sucked up the extra money. We would have no more to build anything new."

PPG Industries and PPG Industries Foundation are longtime benefactors of the zoo. In 1986, they donated $40,000 for the Lowland Gorilla exhibit, and $50,000 in 1995 for the Kids Kingdom. PPG also matches employee contributions to the zoo. PPG Industries was the presenting sponsor for the benefit gala that celebrated the opening of the renovated, 45,000-square-foot aquarium in June 2000.

The zoo also might take the partnership with PPG worldwide, Baker said. The zoo might establish wildlife conservation programs by piggybacking on the worldwide network of PPG corporate offices, which operate in 21 countries.

The PPG Foundation ranked as Pennsylvania's seventh most generous corporate donor in 1999, the last year for which statistics were available. The foundation donated about $4.9 million.