National Park Foundation Funding School Field Trips to The National Parks

With hopes of connecting more kids to national parks, the National Park Foundation is underwriting a transportation program to enable classes to take field trips to the National Park System.

Under the Ticket To Ride program, the Foundation is allocating an initial grant of $117,000 for field trips during this school year.

“We are dedicated to giving all audiences an equal and abundant opportunity to experience, enjoy and support these special places – especially our young people,” said Neil Mulholland, the Foundation's president and CEO. Ticket to Ride makes it possible for us to engage the younger generation in a life changing experience, while simultaneously developing future park stewards who will support these treasured places for years to come.”

The Foundation recognizes that one of the greatest barriers preventing youth from experiencing the national parks around them is transportation. The goal of the Ticket to Ride program is to provide efficient transportation support for students to visit our national parks. This goal is shared by National Park Service officials, who hope the program will enable at least 100,000 students to visit the parks each school year.

Once in the parks, a world of learning begins as 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 and ways to support this and the other exceptional National Park Foundation programs, go to www.nationalparks.org