Husband and Wife team, Christopher and Shari Boyer, have created a new company called Government Solutions Group Inc.  Their company is based on the principal that state parks are an untapped advertising resource, and if the state park allows them to sell advertisements in their welcome kits, 20% of the advertising revenue goes back to the state park.

The Government Solutions Group welcome kit contains a fold-out map, park highlights, suggested road trips, calendar of events and other information.  The kits are produced at no cost to the state, taxpayers or park visitors. The kits take 6-8 months to make and cost about $800,000.  They are distributed in May and updated annually.  Some of the companies that are already involved with the program are Coca Cola, Stater Bros. Markets, Nestle, Cascadian Farm, Odwalla Inc. and Geico.

So far, these welcome kits are in 11 states including California, New York, Texas, Florida and Ohio.  The money already raised by 20% For Parks program has gone to efforts to plant more than 1 million trees in California state parks, creating 7 playgrounds in New York state parks and has provided 4 vehicles for state parks in Utah and Colorado.

The Government Solutions Group has an exclusive deal with the state parks, which does not allow competitors to produce similar kits.  The firm expects to have distributed 6 million welcome kits by the end of 2009.

For more information, go to: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-park-guides29-2009sep29,0,6687015.story

Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times / June 30