April 25, 2008

RICHMOND, Va. — Nearly 20,000 elementary students in 217 schools in four states are participating this week in Dominion’s Project Plant It! program, a community effort to educate children, plant trees and improve the environment.

More than 15,000 students in Virginia and more than 4,000 students in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island are participating in the Project Plant It! partnership among Dominion, the Arbor Day Foundation and selected school districts where the company does business. The program was successfully piloted last year in Virginia and will reach more than twice as many students this year.

The Project Plant It! program includes classroom lessons and activities about trees. Each child will receive a tree seedling to plant at home or other special place, and some classes will plant trees on school grounds on Arbor Day, which is Friday, April 25. The Virginia Department of Forestry equates Dominion’s donation of 20,000 tree seedlings to planting about 40 acres of new forest land.

"Project Plant It! offers students a hands-on experience as they learn about the value of trees in the ecosystem," said Eva T. Hardy, Dominion executive vice president-Public Policy & Corporate Communications. "The students can watch the trees grow as they grow. Project Plant It! is both educational and fun."

Teachers participating in the program received lesson plans and classroom materials that are designed to help meet specific educational standards in their state.

"Project Plant It! is enabling nearly 20,000 children to recognize the many benefits that trees provide. Through Dominion, this partnership is helping us achieve our mission to inspire people to plant, nurture and celebrate trees," said John Rosenow, chief executive of the Arbor Day Foundation.

Additional information on Project Plant It! for students, teachers and parents is available by visiting the program’s Web site at http://www.projectplantit.com. The interactive site includes videos featuring Dominion foresters and enables students to ask the foresters questions and tell them stories about the trees they plant.

The Arbor Day Foundation
The Arbor Day Foundation is a nonprofit conservation organization of nearly one million members, with a mission to inspire people to plant, nurture, and celebrate trees. More information on the Foundation and its programs can be found at http://arborday.org.

Dominion
Dominion is one of the nation's largest producers of energy, with a portfolio of approximately 26,500 megawatts of generation. Dominion serves retail energy customers in 11 states. For more information about Dominion, visit the company's Web site at http://www.dom.com.

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