Collins Aerospace donates 16 acres to Belvidere Park District

• Land donation is among the largest the park district has ever received and will help enable the district to host its summer camp for kids by providing extra space to accommodate social distancing
• New park created by the donation will be named Sundstrand Park in honor of Collins Aerospace’s legacy Sundstrand business

ROCKFORD, Ill. (June 30, 2020) – Collins Aerospace Systems, a unit of Raytheon Technologies Corp. (NYSE: RTX), today announced a donation of 16 acres to the Belvidere Park District. The land donation is among the largest the park district has ever received.

The new park created by the donation will be named Sundstrand Park in honor of Collins Aerospace’s legacy Sundstrand business. The land originally served as a park for Sundstrand employees and was located on the backside of Sundstrand’s Belvidere plant. Even after Sundstrand sold its Belvidere plant in the 1990s, it maintained ownership of the park, which the company’s employee association continued to use for sports leagues and events. Although the land will now become part of the Belvidere Park District, Collins Aerospace employees will continue to have access to it as part of the donation.

The park district is already planning to use the new area to host its summer camp program for local children. To maintain adequate social distancing during the coronavirus, the district needed more space for the program this year and, fortunately, Collins Aerospace’s donation has provided just that.

“Collins Aerospace is proud to donate this land to the Belvidere Park District,” said Stan Kottke, vice president, Electric Power Systems, Collins Aerospace. “We saw this as a great way to honor our Sundstrand legacy, while also giving back to our community. We hope the people of Belvidere enjoy this new park as much as we have for the past 50 years.”

“The Belvidere Park District and the Parks and Conservation Foundation are very grateful to Collins Aerospace for the generous donation of Sundstrand Park,” said Mark Pentecost, executive director, Belvidere Park District. “We are excited to facilitate the use of this gift to the community knowing that it will be enjoyed by future generations just as it had been enjoyed by past ones. Donations of fully developed parks with shelters, ball fields, parking and other amenities don’t happen very often, so this is truly a one-of-a-kind donation for the community and the Belvidere Park District.”