Friends of the Park presented 3rd District Congressman Zach Wamp with their 2004 Drew Haskins, Jr., Award of Merit during the group’s annual meeting aboard the Southern Belle riverboat.

The award honors a community member each year for outstanding service to Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park and its ideals of preservation, peace and unity.

In the Congressman’s absence due to his responsibilities in Washington, D.C., at the close of the last legislative session of the federal fiscal year, members of his family represented him at the Friends meeting. His mother and father, Beth and Don Wamp, were in attendance along with his son, Weston, 17, and daughter, Coty, 15, who accepted the award for their father.

The award was personalized for Congressman Wamp, including a reproduction of an 1857 James Cameron painting, “View of Moccasin Bend, Chattanooga,” from the collection of the Hunter Museum of American Art.

“We are obviously very proud of our dad,” said Weston in receiving the award. “We are sorry he could not be here due to his duties as our congressman, but we are more than delighted to represent him. On his behalf, we thank the Friends of the Park.”

“The Friends are pleased to bestow this honor on Zach Wamp this year,” said Friends president Sam D. Elliott. “The choice was obvious. Zach’s extraordinary efforts over the past several years in building partnerships and drafting and sponsoring legislation resulted this year in the addition of more than 600 acres on Chattanooga’s Moccasin Bend to the National Park system as a sub-unit of Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park. This ensures the preservation and interpretation of the Bend’s rich 10,000-year Native American legacy and its Civil War history. We thank Mr. Wamp for his efforts. In honoring him, we also honor the efforts of our sister organization, the Friends of Moccasin Bend, a group of volunteers who have worked for decades to protect the Bend’s unique cultural heritage.”

Zach Wamp is Tennessee’s only member of the House Appropriations Committee. He serves on the Homeland Security Subcommittee, as Vice Chairman of the Energy and Water Subcommittee and is co-chairman of the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Caucus, working for energy independence and new technology growth. He is member of long standing of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, which funds all federal lands, including the National Parks and U.S. Forest Service. A Chattanooga native, Zach spent 12 years as a commercial real estate broker before entering Congress.

The Friends’ Award of Merit was established in 1998 in memory of Drew Haskins, President and Founder of Capital Bank in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia; long-time member of the Friends; and lifelong supporter of Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park. Past recipients are James Ogden, Park Historian (1998); Mr. & Mrs. R.B. Davenport, Jr., long-time benefactors to the Friends and their programs (1999); John Smartt, Lookout Mountain native and 50-year advocate for Lookout Mountain trails (2000); Robin Rudd, award-winning Chattanooga Times Free Press photographer (2001); Jack Steiner, Sr. of Ruby Falls, for his tireless work in promoting heritage tourism & the Park (2002); and Leonard Fant, CEO of Blood Assurance of Chattanooga, 25-year Park Friend, volunteer & fundraiser (2003).