Accokeek Foundation Receives Ticket to Ride Grant for School Tours
ACCOKEEK FOUNDATION AT PISCATAWAY PARK
ANJELA BARNES, COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
OUTREACH@ACCOKEEK.ORG | 301-283-2113
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ACCOKEEK FOUNDATION AT PISCATAWAY PARK AWARDED NATIONAL PARK FOUNDATION ‘TICKET TO RIDE’ GRANT TO BRING LOCAL STUDENTS INTO PARK
$230,000 Grant Connects 30,000 Students with National Parks Across the Country
Washington, D.C. (August 28, 2012) – Responding to an overwhelming need for transportation and educational programming funding from parks and schools nationwide, the National Park Foundation, the official charity of America’s national parks, created the Ticket To Ride program. With support from Disney, Ticket to Ride provides financial resources for transportation, in-park educational programming, and meals that make national park field trips possible for schools across the country. This year, Accokeek Foundation at Piscataway Park was selected to receive a Ticket to Ride grant in order to bring 1,500 students to Piscataway Park. Nationwide, over $230,000 in Ticket to Ride grants will make it possible for more than 30,000 students to experience their local national park this fall.
The Accokeek Foundation at Piscataway Park offers unique educational programs about Maryland’s history, modern sustainable agriculture, and natural resource stewardship. Entertaining tours and performances, customized experience based activities, and service learning opportunities help people connect to the land and to one another.
This land also serves as an outdoor classroom for educational programs, research, agricultural, and conservation projects. Each year, thousands of students and educators participate in programs developed to supplement social studies and environmental education in the classroom. With the Accokeek Foundation’s involvement in the Ticket to Ride program we will include pre-site and post-site component for students to complete prior to coming to the site and after they get back to school. These components will consist of an interactive learning guide with videos, trivia and vocabulary words that are in line with the theme tour chosen by the teacher.
“Providing the means for America’s youth to experience all that our national park system has to offer is imperative,” said Neil Mulholland, President and CEO of the National Park Foundation. “The Ticket to Ride program makes it possible for us to engage the younger generation through the parks’ unique natural, cultural and historical classrooms, ultimately fostering an early love and appreciation for these important places.”
In addition to the Accokeek Foundation at Piscataway Park, the Fall 2012 Ticket to Ride grantees include:
Assateague Island National Seashore
Boston National Historical Park
Buck Island Reef National Monument
Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park
Craters of the Moon National Monument and National Preserve
Devils Postpile National Monument
Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor
Everglades National Park and Biscayne National Park
Homestead National Monument of America
Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial
Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park
Mississippi National River and Recreation Area
Moores Creek National Battlefield
National Mall and Memorial Parks
New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park
Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail
River Raisin National Battlefield Park
San Juan Island National Historical Park
Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area
Stones River National Battlefield
Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts
World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument
For many students, the Ticket to Ride field trip will be their first visit to a national park. Recognizing that once in the parks, a world of experiential learning opens up, the National Park Foundation and the National Park Service are dedicated to providing this critical access to the parks. Through these field trips, young people discover their natural, cultural and historical heritage, participate in volunteer and service-learning activities, enjoy recreational opportunities and most importantly, begin a lifelong relationship with their national parks.
For more information about the Ticket to Ride program, our corporate partners and ways to support this and the other exceptional National Park Foundation programs, go to www.nationalparks.org.
ABOUT THE NATIONAL PARK FOUNDATION
You are the owner of 84 million acres of the world’s most treasured memorials, landscapes, ecosystems, and historic sites — all protected in America’s nearly 400 national parks. Chartered by Congress, the National Park Foundation is the official charity of America’s national parks. We work hand in hand with the National Park Service to connect you and all Americans to the parks, and to make sure that they are preserved for the generations who will follow. Join us in supporting your national parks — this is your land. www.nationalparks.org.
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