The Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut has announced an $8 million gift from the estate of Peter Grayson Letz to promote animal welfare and protect the environment and wildlife in New London County.

The largest gift in the foundation's thirty-one-year history will establish in perpetuity the Peter Grayson Letz Fund for Animals and the Environment. In the coming months, CFECT will conduct focus groups and work with environmental and animal welfare groups and community leaders to develop a long-term plan for the approximately $320,000 in grants the fund will generate annually.

The foundation did not have a personal working relationship with Peter Letz, but his parents, who lived in Groton for more than sixty years, established a scholarship fund with CFECT in 1989 to provide scholarships to students attending Fitch High School and another in their will to assist graduates of North Stonington's Wheeler High School.

"It is very clear to us and to those representing his estate that [Peter] saw that entrusting his gift to the community foundation would carry out his wish to support the issues he really cared about," said CFECT president and CEO Maryam Elahi. "We plan to magnify the social impact of this gift by investing in companies that are deemed to be environmentally friendly and sensitive to animal rights. We believe this additional step would have greatly pleased Mr. Letz."