On April 27th, myself and fellow ProRanger Rachel Smith volunteered at Temple University's Annual Earth Fest, held at Temple's Ambler Campus. With the help of Kelly Fellner, Volunteer and Youth Programs Coordinator for the National Park Service's Northeast Region, Rachel and I were able to set up a table at the fest and talk to hundreds of individuals about the mission of the Park Service, and what they can do to get involved in some of the volunteer activities within local National Parks such as Valley Forge and Independence. We were both surprised at the overwhelming amount of Elementary and Middle School visitors, and we had to adjust our information to keep these age groups interested. Rachel and Kelly talked to many kids about what a National Park is and gave out information on Junior Ranger Programs. Older visitors wanted to know Rachel and mine's affiliation with the Park Service, and we explained what the ProRanger Program was, and even talked to some potential recruits for the upcoming year. One of our most successful activities was having the visitors pin on a map of the all the National Parks which parks they had been to, and the result was interesting and very fun to look at! (A picture of the map is bellow). Overall, despite the windy conditions fighting against us, we had a very successful day and Temple Earth Fest was a hit once again! Rachel and I cannot wait for next year!
I want to thank Jordan and Rachel for assisting at Temple Earthfest. Despite the cool, windy day, you both did a wonderful job engaging both kids and adults about the NPS, Climate Change, and ways for young people to get involved in the parks through volunteering and youth corps programs. I bet there was at least one future ProRanger in the crowd that day. Thanks for posting the pictures and job well done!
ReplyDeleteKelly Fellner