Officials from Texas Sea Grant, Texas A&M University and Texas Cooperative Extension will pay tribute Tuesday (June 26, 2001) to Virginia Corn of Port Aransas for her donation to Sea Grant's marine education program. The delegation will present Corn with a plaque to recognize her for her donation of the Fishing Vessel Karma from the estate of her deceased husband Capt. Rick Corn to Texas Sea Grant. The program has converted the 57-foot vessel into a floating classroom that will be used to educate teachers and schoolchildren about the state's coastal and marine resources. "Mrs. Corn's donation allowed us to get a much nicer boat than we would have been able to get with the limited funds available to us," said Ralph Rayburn, director of Texas Sea Grant's Marine Advisory Service. "It also allowed us to use some of the money that was originally set aside to purchase the boat to improve the quality and safety of the vessel." The boat was purchased using money from the Texas Coastal Management Program, Matagorda County Navigation District #1 and private donations. It will provide Texas students and teachers in grades 4-12 with hands-on experiences and firsthand observations of the Gulf coast's natural resources and environments. Rayburn said he hopes this program can help bring all of the state's coastal and marine education programs together in a coordinated effort to reach out to the state's citizens. "This will be the flagship in our marine education program," he said. "With this vessel, we plan to educate the state's future leaders in coastal and marine resources through a challenging and exciting adventure." | 
