In honor of National African American History Month, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis, and NPS Deputy Director Peggy O’Dell will host events at national parks across the country during February. As part the Every Kid in a Park initiative, the secretary, director and deputy director will invite local fourth graders to participate and learn about African Americans’ contributions to the nation’s history and culture.

On February 11 Secretary Jewell will visit the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site in Alabama. While there, she will host a discussion with several surviving airmen and distribute Every Kid in a Park passes to fourth graders for free entry to America’s federal lands and waters. She will also announce an important new partnership between Google and the NPS.

Throughout February, Director Jarvis will travel to three national park sites to highlight the role of the National Park Service in telling diverse American stories and to distribute Every Kid in a Park passes to local fourth graders; his first stop was Tuesday at Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site in Arkansas.

On February 18, Director Jarvis will travel to Colonel Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument in Dayton, Ohio; and on February 22 he will visit New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park. On February 19, NPS Deputy Director Peggy O’Dell will host an Every Kid in the Park event at Pullman National Monument in Chicago. Director Jarvis will also offer opening remarks at the Association for the Study of African American Life and History 90th Annual Black History Luncheon in Washington, D.C., on February 20.

The Every Kid in a Park initiative is part of an overall strategy to connect young people to the outdoors. The program allows fourth graders nationwide to go to www.everykidinapark.gov and obtain a pass for free entry for them and their families to more than 2,000 federally managed lands and waters nationwide for an entire year, starting September 1, 2015.

Connecting with and creating the next generation of park visitors, supporters, and advocates is also a key goal of this year’s NPS Centennial, celebrating the 100-year milestone of America’s national parks.