The Virginia Living Museum has given its highest honor, the Golden Paw Award, to Ferguson Enterprises, Inc. for outstanding service to the Newport News museum.

“We’re proud of our long association with Ferguson,” said VLM Executive Director Page Hayhurst. “They’re a community leader that has provided long-term support for the Virginia Living Museum and many other cultural and support services in the community.”

The VLM has received time, talent and financial support from Ferguson and its associates for more than 20 years.

Ferguson leaders helped guide the museum’s transformation from the Peninsula Nature and Science Center to the Virginia Living Museum in the 1980s and the recent $22.6 million expansion that led to the 62,000 sq. ft. building that opened in 2004.

Monetary gifts from Ferguson and its individual associates to the capital campaign now exceed $1 million, making Ferguson the Virginia Living Museum’s largest single donor.

Ferguson associates have also volunteered their time: organizing three car shows and a Boots for Bucks fundraiser that benefited the museum, designing the annual report and volunteering at museum functions.

Ferguson presidents David Peebles, Charlie Banks, Chip Hornsby and John Stegeman, along with many Ferguson associates, have and continue to pay a vital role in enhancing the museum’s mission of education and environmental awareness.

Started in 1953, Ferguson is recognized today as the largest distributor of plumbing supplies and pipe, valves and fittings, and the third largest distributor for heating and cooling equipment in the U.S. With sales exceeding $7 billion, Ferguson now employs nearly 21,000 and boasts a coast-to-coast distribution network with approximately 1,300 locations in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Mexico.

In 1982 British distribution giant Wolseley plc acquired Ferguson and supplied the financial strength for the company’s rapid territorial growth and aggressive expansion.

The award was presented during a dinner Nov. 3 honoring museum donors. The award is a bronze bobcat statue by Eastern Shore sculptor David Turner.