Elementary Students Hike with Secretary Kempthorne
|
Interior Secretary Kempthorne hikes with students from Pi Beta Phi Elementary School at Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
| On a warm, spring morning in early March, students from Pi Beta Phi Elementary School in Gatlinburg, Tennessee joined Secretary Kempthorne in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Over 30 students from the school, located in the heart of the park, participated in a short hike with the Secretary of the Interior, and shared with him their ideas for improving the parks as the National Parks Service approaches its Centennial Anniversary in 2016.
|
|
| Later that evening, Secretary Kempthorne and the Director of the National Parks Service, Mary Bomar, hosted the first in a series of listening sessions to seek suggestions and ideas from Americans across the country on President Bush's National Park Centennial Initiative to reinvigorate and strengthen national parks over the next decade.
The students are no strangers to Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Over 100 students from Pi Beta Phi Elementary School are involved in an ongoing stewardship project throughout the school year. They participate in the 'Parks as Classrooms' program, which has helped the students understand the importance of our national parks and public lands. Last year, Take Pride recognized the school with a 2006 National Award for their eleven year partnership in volunteering with the park. Seventh and eighth grade students volunteer by improving hiking trails, protecting endangered plant species, gathering trash and performing water monitoring studies.
TO ENLARGE AN IMAGE, CLICK ON THE
THUMBNAIL.
Archive of Previous Spotlight Events
|
