Bandelier National Monument, NM (Photo courtesy of Frank Lee Ruggles)
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A Free Nikon Camera to Capture Your Park Memories on Kids to Parks Day

SAVE THE DATE: Kids to Parks (KTP) Day is Saturday, May 16, 2015. You can register and pledge to participate today at  kidstoparks.org. 

KTP Day is a nation-wide day of outdoor play organized by National Park Trust in cooperation with a host of local and national collaborators including the National Park Service, National League of Cities, Outdoor Alliance for Kids, Sierra Club, National Recreation and Park Association, Children & Nature Network, and US Army Corps of Engineers. Officially in support of the First Lady's Let's Move! initiative, KTP Day is designed to help hundreds of thousands of children and families discover and explore parks right around the corner or just across town. Why participate? In addition to the numerous benefits of outdoor recreation and education, you can capture your memories all year long with this FREE camera!

By registering here, you can access our free park resources AND you also could win a Nikon COOLPIX L830! So register and be counted today! One lucky winner will be selected in May. More details about this prize and others to come. And read about our national school contest in the next story....

Win a Class Trip to a Park!

Calling all students and teachers! Enter our Kids to Parks Day National School Contest for a chance to win a park trip for your class. There may be snow on the ground but it’s never too early to start planning your next spring outdoor adventure. The contest is open NOW to all schools in the country in grades pre-K through 12 until Monday, March 2nd. We are encouraging students to discover and explore their local, state, or national parks and celebrate Kids to Parks Day in May.

Last year, 43 schools were awarded park scholarships. Read what Teresa Young, principal at the Tri-County Christian School in Spruce Pine, NC said:

"As an educator whose school has received a Kids to Parks Day National School Contest grant for two years, thank you for making these great opportunities available which in turn make great memories, and hopefully make the students more aware of the beauty and blessings of our parks nationwide."

Click here for application details. Priority will be given to schools from under-served communities.

Thanks to the Georgia-Pacific Foundation, the Buddy Bison Program Arrives in Atlanta

Thanks to generous funding from the Georgia-Pacific Foundation, one hundred 3rd-grade students from M. Agnes Jones Elementary in Atlanta, GA will join our national Buddy Bison school program and learn about environmental science, park stewardship and so much more. What's next? First, the students will visit the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in February. Their trip will provide experiential learning that complements their earth science unit on rocks, soil, weathering, and fossils. Our education team also is working with their teachers to plan an exciting spring trip to a park. In addition, each 3rd-grade classroom will receive our Buddy Bison toolkit full of fun resources that teachers can use including books, maps, journal books, and lesson plans.

JaKathryn Ross, Director of Community Affairs, Georgia-Pacific explained why working with NPT to "adopt" M. Agnes Jones Elementary School is a win-win: “At Georgia-Pacific, we understand how important it is for students to extend their STEM lesson plans outside of the classroom to the outdoors. We look forward to our partnership with National Park Trust to bring the Buddy Bison school program to the enthusiastic students at
M. Agnes Jones Elementary this year.”

A "VIP" Volunteer: Chris Rief

If you’ve been following our posts (and perhaps have our 2015 calendar in your office or kitchen), then you are already familiar with Chris Rief. Chris (pictured left) is the guy behind some of those amazing images. Since 2009, Chris has generously donated his photography talents and time capturing the transformational park experiences of our Buddy Bison students in the Washington, D.C. area and in North Carolina. Chris is manager of The North Face store in Bethesda, MD and owner of  Chris Rief Photography, LLC 

Shop AND Fundraise?

In newsletters past, we shared with you an easy way to help NPT by using  AmazonSmile  and selecting us as your charity of choice year round (earning NPT a portion of the sale as a donation). Well, thanks to the good people at eScrip, you can also shop hundreds of stores and restaurants online and the merchants will give back a portion of their proceeds to NPT. You can even register your grocery and pharmacy discount cards to help fundraise, as well as get notifications of store sales and discounts for eScrip members only. Signing up is easy and free. It’s super simple, check it out for yourself.

Select NPT as a charity and enjoy shopping this Valentine’s Day and every day knowing that you are helping to support our mission and important programs.

Some of the national stores who participate through eScrip’s online program are: Lands’ End, J. Crew, Lord & Taylor, Sam’s Club, Barnes & Noble, Expedia, T-Mobile, Saks Fifth Avenue, Kate Spade, Harry & David, and Nautica.