?The main benefactor behind Calvin College’s Vincent and Helen Bunker Interpretive Center has given the college $1 million for programming and maintenance for both that facility and the Ecosystem Preserve where it makes its home.

"Needless to say, we're thrilled, and it definitely allows us to plan with a broader vision than we have in the past, particularly in the outreach for community groups," says Randall Van Dragt, a Calvin professor of biology and the preserve director. "It's hard to overestimate that value."

The Bunker Center and the Ecosystem Preserve regularly host area school groups, environmental groups and other visitors who come to both enjoy and learn about the site's 90 acres of trails, hardwood forest and wetlands and the many species of both plants and animals that live there.

Helen Bunker's gift comes at a time, VanDragt says, when other area environmental education centers are feeling the pressure of budget constraints.

Income from the $1 million gift will pay for maintenance of the Center and the Preserve, will allow more programming for upper elementary and lower middle school students, will pay for additional display design, and could fund further staff for the center.

Bunker, a onetime neighbor of the 90-acre Ecosystem Preserve has a long history of involvement with both that site and the center that bears the names of her and her late husband.

That involvement began a decade ago when Bunker helped the college purchase a home next to hers on Lake Drive which became the preserve's headquarters. In 1999 she donated her own home and its two acres to the preserve and in 2004 she gave the lead gift to build the 5, 270-square-foot Bunker Center, the preserve's new headquarters.

A largely self-sustaining facility, independent of the city sewer system and reliant on solar energy, the Bunker Center recently won a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold rating from the U.S. Green Building Council for the many environmentally friendly features incorporated into its design. (The center is one of only two U.S. facilities of higher education, one of only four buildings in Michigan and one of only 67 buildings in the nation to earn a LEED Gold designation.)

Since the September 10, 2004 dedication of the Bunker Center, the Ecosystem Preserve has attracted double its usual number of visitors, and the preserve's staff has been able to provide year-round camps and classes for them.

"As I've watched programs come and go this summer, and kids using the building this summer, it truly reminded me of the interest Helen has taken in Calvin's preserve and environmental programs," Van Dragt says. "She's become a real friend to the college and a real friend to the Preserve and the Interpretive Center, and I hope we're reciprocating and making the kind of program that meets her expectations. We certainly have Helen in mind when we're working."