Buddy Bison, Making Park Dreams Come True!

Send a Kid to a Park

Can you guess this park? Micro-organisms called thermophiles give this park its bright colors. Buddy Bison’s book published by National Geographic takes place here too! Photo courtesy of Frank Lee Ruggles. Answer to last month: Joshua Tree National Park

Despite the most recent cold snap and pending snow storm here on the east coast, it’s shaping up to be a hopping spring for our Buddy Bison Schools this year! Just this past month, I traveled all the way from the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island in New York to Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Georgia. Soon I’ll be embarking on adventures with schools in Chicago, Boston, New Orleans, and more!

Once spring is back in the air, it’ll be time to get ready for my favorite holiday: Kids to Parks Day (KTP) on May 20th! Earlier this month, we made park dreams come true for the 70 schools who won our Kids to Parks Day National School Contest. Read all about it below and check out kidstoparks.org for information on the contest results, KTP events in your area, and more!

Explore outdoors, the parks are yours!

Buddy Bison

And the Kids to Parks Day National School Contest Winners Are…..

I am thrilled to announce the winners of this year’s Kids to Parks Day National School Contest! We received an incredible number of wonderful, unique and interesting contest entries. A huge Buddy Bison thanks to the students and teachers for their hard work in assembling their proposals – and we loved their videos, letters, and artwork received too!

Congratulations to the 70 winning schools and their nearly 4,000 students that will be exploring parks this May for Kids to Parks Day - from grades Pre-K through 12, representing 28 states and Washington, D.C.! It was a pleasure reading about the fantastic stewardship project ideas – from building a rain garden, to water testing, to tree-planting projects. We can’t wait to see all of the pictures and stories from the day.

Thank you to our sponsors Northside and Guest Services for their generous support for this contest. In addition 2,000 of the students will receive premium CamelBak water bottles. Not only will they be well-hydrated, but they will also be helping our environment by re-using their new bottles every day.

See the winners here.

While you're on the website, you'll see that there's not just a contest, but events all over the country for Kids to Parks Day that you can attend! When you pledge to participate in or host an event, you will receive a promo code to be used on the Northside website. Awesome!

Washington Jesuit Academy (DC) explores the woods at Rock Creek Park (DC).

Earth and Sky with Washington Jesuit Academy

Have you ever wondered what the stars look like to other countries and cultures? I found out with 3rd-grade students from Washington Jesuit Academy (WJA) in Washington, D.C. We visited Rock Creek Park, a national park right inside the District’s borders. There, we experienced the only planetarium in the National Park Service and learned what ancient African cultures saw in the stars. After the planetarium, we hiked through the woods, where we identified plants and listened for the sounds of hidden animals, then explored the Nature Center and met some of the living things that call Rock Creek Park their home!

Thanks to the wonderful rangers for this terrific day and to the Clark Charitable Foundation who made our field trip possible. Each year the foundation supports WJA’s participation in our Buddy Bison School Program. To learn how you can support a school, contact Maryann Kearns at maryann@parktrust.org, or call 301-279-7275, ext. 15.

Rangers joined Brooklyn Jesuit Prep (NY) students at the Statue of Liberty. The brisk air did not dampen our spirits!

Buddy Bison Reunites With a Beloved Friend

Last month I explored national parks in New York with 8th-grade students from Brooklyn Jesuit Prep. We boarded a ferry to Ellis Island taking a quick first stop to see Lady Liberty. Ranger Dennis Mulligan and Ranger Reneel Langdon welcomed us at the docks and taught us about the statue’s majestic structure. Before our departure to Ellis Island, we enjoyed a beautiful view of New York City.

Did you know that over the 60+ years of its operation as an immigration station, Ellis Island processed more than 12 million immigrants? That is a lot of people! We learned this and more when we met Ranger Sam Webb there. He joined us for a fascinating audio tour leading us through the halls that immigrants walked as they entered this country. Seeing artifacts from different time periods and hearing immigrant stories was so inspiring! The students are excited to make plans to visit this park and other New York area parks in the near future!

A very BIG Buddy Bison thanks to Statue Cruises for providing the ferry transportation and to Richard and Nanci Czaja for their generous sponsorship of this school each year! Because of their important support, many of these students were able to visit these iconic historic sites for their first time ever!

3rd graders from M. Agnes Jones (GA) learn about science at Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta.

Buddy Bison Kids are T. Rex-cellent!

Do you love creatures that slither and crawl? So do I! And so do Buddy Bison students from M. Agnes Jones Elementary School in Atlanta, GA. This past month, the 3rd-grade class visited Atlanta’s Fernbank Museum of Natural History, where they enjoyed the museum’s program on “Georgia’s Natural Regions.” Thanks to a project they’d been working on in class, the kids really felt ownership of these vast habitats! When the presenter pointed out the region they’d been assigned, they gave out a huge Buddy Bison cheer!

They then met animals native to Georgia - and touched them too. They were so engaged that their questions stumped the program presenter! Afterwards, we explored some of the exhibits and even saw some dinosaur fossils.

A huge Buddy Bison thanks to the Georgia-Pacific Foundation for their support of this school each year and for helping science come alive for these children.

Washington Grove (MD) students enjoy the pond at Black Hill Regional Park in Boyds, MD. Photo courtesy of Washington Grove.

Kids Helping Kids Get to Parks

The Bullis School in Potomac, MD 3rd-graders have participated in the Buddy Bison School Program since 2009. While they are not in need of resources for their own park trips, they actively help raise resources for our parks and to encourage under-served students to be good stewards, too!

For example, each year they enter the Kids to Parks Day National School Contest, but not to win a park trip for themselves. They take a school trip to Black Hill Regional Park each year and entered the contest on behalf of their “sister” school Washington Grove Elementary so they could go, too! Here is what Simon from Bullis had to say about why he and his classmates wanted to “win” a park trip for Washington Grove:

“It is important for a nine-year-old to go to parks because they can get fresh air and see amazing views of nature. Going to a park could be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. You can learn about the environment and how to preserve a park. You can see geysers, beaches, huge trees, canyons and more. If you go to a park at a young age, you will grow up wanting to help the parks. When I am a parent, I will take my kids to a national park.”

Thank you Simon and the Bullis School for thinking of other students and taking action to get them outdoors. We are very pleased that your contest entry this year was one of our winners!

Buddy Bison Student Ambassador Sarah at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in southern NJ. Photo courtesy of Cheryl Hullihen.

Buddy Bison Student Ambassador Sarah: For the Birds

As a Buddy Bison Student Ambassador, Sarah Hullihen, a middle schooler from New Jersey, loves to explore local, state and national parks. Over the past year, Sarah has brought me on adventures to a number of public lands, including forests, monuments, and wildlife refuges. Check out her recent trip to the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in southern New Jersey and see why it’s such an amazing place:

"In the fall and spring, many migrating birds stop in the salt marshes and tall grasses here to find food and shelter. It is part of what is called the “Atlantic Flyway” because so many birds travel through here during migrations.

If you visit the Edwin B. Forsythe Refuge, one of the cool things that you can do is go on the Wildlife Drive. This is an 8-mile long road that you can drive on around part of the refuge to see lots of birds and other wildlife. Along the way you will see signs telling you about the wildlife, the history of the refuge, and how the refuge makes habitats for different types of birds. Some of the sights that you might see on the drive are a nesting platform for peregrine falcons, hawks, a turtle crossing, and even the occasional bald eagle!

One thing that I really enjoyed at the refuge was the Junior Refuge Manager book and badge. When you visit the different parts of the refuge, you fill out the pages in the book, and then you can get a Junior Refuge Manager badge! So the next time you are ready to get out and explore, think about one of our great public lands, like your nearest wildlife refuge."

Thanks Sarah for this wonderful story and sharing some neat things about the refuge. You can follow Sarah’s adventures on social media (@jrrangersarah) and on her blog. To read her full story, check out this link.

Email: npt@parktrust.org - Phone: 301.279.7275

We are not only good stewards of our parks, but also of your resources. In 2016, 82.5% of our resources were invested in our park preservation and youth education programs.