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SPECIAL EDITION |
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Summer is heating up with exciting possibilities |
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The
National Park Foundation is proud to sponsor the new Ken Burns documentary
series,
The National Parks:
America's Best Idea. Premiering
September 27
on PBS, the
film tells the story of how
America's national parks came to be—focusing
on people from
every conceivable background
who were shaped
by the landscape and in turn
devoted
their lives to ensuring that the
most special
places in our country would be
preserved
for all
future generations.
For the next several months, the National
Park Foundation will partner with PBS to
bring you
special issues of GoParks that
explore this historic new film. Join us as
we go behind the
scenes and into the wilds
of our national parks. |
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Nothing to Sneeze At |
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Spring is here, and the makers of BENADRYL® and the National Park Foundation
want to encourage people to get outdoors to enjoy everything our parks have to
offer. Through a spring "funraiser"
hosted by Mother Nature, the makers of BENADRYL made a contribution to the
National Park Foundation each time someone entered a unique promotion code from
specially marked packages of BENADRYL. From March 15 through June 15, the
promotion generated $50,000 for NPF. You can still go online and pledge moments
outdoors and encourage friends and family to do the same. There are some cool
downloads available too. Learn More
>> |
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National Park Foundation, the official
charity of America's
national parks, works to
strengthen the enduring
connection between the
American people and their
parks and to provide support
to the National Park Service
by raising private funds,
making strategic grants,
creating innovative
partnerships and increasing
public awareness. NPF is
proud to be a major funder
of the new Ken Burns
documentary series, The
National Parks: America's
Best Idea and congratulates
Florentine Films, WETA and PBS for
producing this historic
film. |
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National Park
Foundation
1201 Eye Street 550B
Washington, DC 20005
Donate |
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Public
Broadcasting Service
2100 Crystal Drive
Arlington, VA 22202
Donate |
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Q&A With Ken Burns |
Ken Burns shares the stories and
ideas that inspired him
to tell the
history of America's national parks
and the
people who protected them.
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Why a documentary on our
national parks?
I think we've always been curious about who we are as a people and what it means
to be an American. I think the land and our identification with it—the mythology
that surrounds it, the |
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kind of hopes and dreams that we invest in it—get to the heart of
that identity. Too
often we assume in history that the
approach should take a national
perspective, and I think what's
amazing about the parks story is
that it's so intimate. Part of this
story is about who we are
individually as we experience the
parks—they help us get to know
ourselves, and we can also relate to
previous generations through these
magnificent places.
Several
times in the film, you relate how a
single individual or a small group
manages to have a real impact in
helping to create a park. Can you
talk about that?
This is the reason why biography is
so important to history. It is so
interesting to see, particularly in
our history, that individuals do
matter, that people can come across
something and be a catalyst for
change. William Gladstone Steel in
the 1870s happened to accidentally
see a picture of Oregon's Crater
Lake in a newspaper that had wrapped
his lunchtime meal. He resolved to
go there, and once he did get there
15 years later, he devoted the next
17 years to trying to get it made
into a national park—which he helped
achieve. This is 32 years after
having that epiphany over lunch.
What is it about that? What do we
learn from this?
Why does
America need national parks?
They're like anchors.
When we say "My country 'tis of
thee"—it's my country—are we talking
about city streets? Are we talking
about industrial cities? No. We're
talking about the land we have, and
there's so very little of it that's
unspoiled or that doesn't have a
fence through it. Here in these
special places that we've resolved
together as a people to preserve, we
feel a sense of commonality. You
come to a national park and all of a
sudden some of the barriers between
people, between classes, even
between nationalities are broken
down and you share and have the
experience of an essential,
collective humanity. It's a common
wealth, and my goodness, especially
today we need that reminder of what
we share in common. What I say to
people is, "You own the grandest
canyon on earth. Together you own
some of the most spectacular
scenery." That's pretty good news. |
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Explore Your Parks: Download the
National Park Owner's Guide |
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The National Park Foundation's
Owner's
Guide is designed to make your national
park experience better than ever. Full of advice about what to see and do
including maps of every state and links to each national park website, the
Owner's Guide offers an insider's view of the special places we
love and the opportunity to experience them
to their fullest.
Download an Owner's Guide
for free, and explore your parks as you
never have before. |
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2009 Share the
Experience Photo Contest |
Nature lovers! Amateur photographers! Kids of all ages! Your national park
photos can help you win one of six great prizes—like an Olympus E-3 digital
single lens reflex (DSLR) Camera Kit—with 15 chances to win in total.
The 2009
Share the Experience Photo Contest, sponsored by
Olympus and the National Park Foundation, showcases the more
than 500 million acres of federal lands.
In
celebration of Ken Burns's
The National Parks:
America's Best Idea, and for
an additional chance to win
great prizes, we are introducing a special new category. Take a photo in any of
the federal recreation lands that you believe showcases "America at
Its Best." The winner of this category will be featured in an issue |
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| Last
year's winning photo |
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of Parks magazine, in addition
to winning an Olympus E-3 DSLR Camera Kit and
The
National Parks: America's
Best Idea DVD and companion
book.
Enter Today
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America's Best Idea Grants |
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Inspired by Ken Burns's magnificent and historic film, the National Park
Foundation has provided 35 national parks with America's Best Idea grants to
help connect new and traditionally underserved communities to their national
parks. Made possible by the National Park Foundation, with additional funding
from the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund and the Popplestone Foundation, the
grants are helping our national parks develop outreach strategies and community
partnerships to encourage long-term stewardship.
Learn more
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Owner's Guide 2009
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The ultimate resource for exploring your national parks |
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What national park lies entirely north of the Arctic Circle and contains
evidence of more than 10,000 years of human civilization?
Submit your
answer here
And congratulations to our last quiz question winner: Mike Hashimoto of Fountain
Hills, Ariz. |
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Official Federal
Recreation Lands
PHOTO CONTEST
>> |
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Collect badges from your national parks visits
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Preorder your copy of The National Parks: America's Best Idea
DVD,
companion
book
and
CD
soundtrack today! Enter the promotion code NPF22 and you will receive a 15%
discount and help support the National Park Foundation. The offer ends September
1st. |
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Share America's
Best Idea |
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GoParks will bring you monthly updates from Ken Burns, PBS and the
National Park Foundation on the upcoming series The National Parks: America's
Best Idea
through the September 2009 premiere. Now join our communities on Facebook and
Twitter: |
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FACEBOOK: |
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National Park Foundation |
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The National Parks: America's Best Idea
(PBS) |
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TWITTER: |
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GoParks
(NPF) |
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PBSnationalpark
(PBS) |
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PBS has also created new
widgets so that you can track what national parks you have
visited and
share your stories with all park enthusiasts. |
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Parks, Camera, Action! |
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Excited about Ken Burns "America's Best Idea" documentary? Beginning this July,
NPF and Olympus invite you to film your summer experiences in America’s national
parks and share them in the "Your Parks" Video Challenge. What do
national parks mean to you? Why do you want to protect them? Enter your video to
win a one-of-a-kind park vacation, state-of-the-art Olympus cameras and more.
Stay tuned at nationalparks.org for more details... |
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