Across the National Park System, national parks fortunate enough to have friends groups helping them out have been leaning a little bit harder on those non-profit organizations than in the past. In some cases a lot harder as federal funding has not kept up with the increase in park units, or the costs of maintaining and operating those parks.

It seems the National Park Service can never get ahead of the costs of operating the park system. That's where national park friends organizations come into play. They raise charitable dollars to help cover the costs of programs and initiatives that the parks wouldn't otherwise be able to afford.

The Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation has been doing this kind of work for 25 years. Today we're going to take a look back at the foundation's many successes with Jordan Calaway, the foundation's chief development officer.