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A sampling of the Pennsylvania State Park patches designed by Caleb Heisey, who hopes to begin selling them online early next year. A portion of each sale will benefit the Pennsylvania Parks and Forest Foundation.

(Caleb Heisey)

Growing up in Newport, Caleb Heisey spent a lot of time at nearby Little Buffalo State Park. So much so that he maybe fell in love -- just a little bit -- with the park.

Heisey left Perry County to study graphic arts (he eventually earned a MFA from Temple University in Philadelphia) but his love of the outdoors and Pennsylvania's state parks was never left behind. As a graduate student Heisey began designing patches for the state parks -- artistic creations that focused on unique characteristics of each park.

The Hyner State Park patch design.

Some state parks already have patches that are sold to visitors, but, noted Heisey, not every park does, and the designs are far from uniform.

He began floating his designs on blogs and people began to share them on forums, where they came to the attention of the Marci Mowery, the president of the Pennsylvania Parks and Forests Foundation. Early next year Heisey hopes to begin selling the patches online -- and a portion of the proceeds of each sale will go to the foundation.

The designs themselves are fairly simple and straightforward, but within each of them Heisey manages to symbolically capture the spirit of each park.

"It's very obvious what is the quintessential thing that makes [a park] special," he said. "All of the state parks come from the same ecosystem, but you will find that each state park is unique in its history or background."

The Lehigh Gorge patch design.

Heisey's designs, he said, focus on that uniqueness. For example, the Cherry Springs State Park focuses on astronomy, which the park is well known for. The Ohiopyle patch meanwhile evokes the rapids that have made the park a white-water rafting mecca.

Heisey is the middle of a kickstarter to get the project off the ground, which runs through the middle of December, and his plan to put together an online store where people can order patches by February or March of next year.

Here's a few more of Heisey's designs: