Last year, First Lady Michelle Obama and former First Lady Laura Bush teamed up to help launch the National Park Service’s Find Your Park movement ahead of the National Park Service’s Centennial, which took place on August 25, 2016.
The movement strives to connect Americans with their local national parks, as well as with other national parks across the country. Using the movement’s website, you can find out more information about visiting any of the United States’ 58 national parks and 117 national monuments.
As part of the movement, the NPS also launched the Every Kid in a Park program. This program allows fourth graders to visit national parks and properties, with more than 2,000 included on the list, for free for an entire year. Beginning in June of 2015, students entering or currently attending fourth grade could go online and download a pass that allowed for free access to any national park or monument for themselves and their family or whoever was accompanying them.
Yosemite National Park was one of the parks that many fourth-graders chose to visit. The park was also awarded a field trip grant from the National Park Foundation. This grant allowed student Rangers from The UC Merced Wilderness Education Center to bring fourth graders from the Merced City School District to Yosemite for a visit. In the spring of 2016, more than 1,300 fourth grade students from the Merced City School District visited Yosemite for a field trip. For many students, it was their first visit to the park despite living so close to it.
In June, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama visited the park and one of the park’s Ranger programs. They gave each of the children in the program their own EKIP pass for the year. Now, the Every Kid in a Park program is being extended for an additional year. On September 1st of each new year, students entering the fourth grade will be eligible to receive a pass good for one calendar year. The pass allows the student and four adults access to the parks.
Students enrolled in the fourth grade during the current school year and their parents can go to the Every Kid in a Park website to download their pass or find more information. Educators can also download passes and information about planning field trips to Yosemite on the site.
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