Every year, Potash Corp-Aurora provides an annual donation to the Aurora Fossil Museum. But this year, the museum was given a $50,000 donation by PotashCorp, in an effort to increase outreach and education.

This year’s donation, that comes with the museum’s 40-year-anniversary, allows the museum to not only expand educational outreach to students and others, but also make much-needed upgrades to its facilities, according to Cynthia Crane, the museum’s director.

“This will help us with specific projects and different things the museum needs to expand on,” Crane said. “Potash Corp-Aurora and the museum have formed a pretty strong partnership, which is a good thing for the museum. They believe in what we do, and it’s a good external commitment. We’re happy to have such a strong partnership with Potash. It can only get better and the big reason is the children and the education we provide to them.”

Crane said she submitted a proposal to PotashCorp highlighting the museum’s needs. With a limited budget as a nonprofit, and the museum starting to receive even more notable publicity, Crane says the donation will be substantial in helping the museum fulfill its goals.

“There have been times we have had to be selective with the amount of outreach we do because of cost,” Crane said. “This will minimize the cost factor, and it will help us update some of our displays, as well as some of our technology and different visions and ideas that we have for the museum to increase our exposure and outreach efforts. It will help in little places that will overall make (the donation) a tremendous contribution. The museum’s board, the staff and volunteers and everyone associated with us, are all very happy about this partnership and this contribution Potash has given us. It shows tremendous support for the museum.”

“We wanted to step up our support because of the importance of the museum to the community,” said Ray McKeithan, manager of public and government affairs at PotashCorp. “They are an anchor of downtown Aurora and it’s essential, especially now that we help them to reach out to not only this community but to people who come from all states to learn in a fun environment. This just demonstrates our commitment not only to Aurora, but also to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education and to the region. So it makes a lot of sense for us to support them with a contribution as well as continued support.”