We arrived home today with new titles: Junior Rangers of Glacier National Park. Ranger Christiane conducted our swearing-in ceremony at the Apgar Visitor Center and talked with us about the things we foresee for the park in the future. Though the three of us were older the twelve-year-old age recommendation, we happily completed the activities in the Junior Ranger Activity Guide, went to several ranger programs, and read signs throughout the park to learn beyond the activities. For my sons, it was their 20th Junior Ranger badge. I joined them a few years ago and proudly keep my badges in my drawer of special things.
This is one of the many great things our National Park Service does to promote awareness of the natural world and history among young people. But there really is no age limit. I encourage everyone to go through the programs at the parks!
I look forward to sharing my badge and information about the park with students in the fall during library time. I hope some of them have badges they can bring to share also.
Welcome Home, Julie! We missed you! We hope you will share with us more of your Glacier trip adventures.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I've never become a Junior Ranger at the National Parks, I've eagerly collected stamps for my National Park Passport Book, and was happy to collect one from Lassen Volcanic National Park in California earlier this month.I'll have to add them up some time, but I've got a lot!
Congratulations to all three of you and welcome home!
ReplyDeleteI, too, love that the Nat'l Parks offers this program.
ReplyDeleteI'll take Glacier weather over this nasty humidity and heat index any day!
ReplyDeleteI would love to know how many National Park Passport stamps you have, David. I thought of you when I saw the stamp on the Visitor Center desk.
Julie, you are a natural for Junior Ranger. So glad you had a good trip; looking forward to hearing about it. David: my son has always been a park-ophile, and also has a brimming passport book. He used to plot our family vacations by how many parks we could hit. Most out of the way was Lake Clark, Alaska, where the water was glacier-green!
ReplyDeleteI just counted, and my most recent National Park Passport stamp at Lassen Volcanic National Park was number 100! I should have done something to celebrate!
ReplyDeleteJoyce, I can totally relate to your son. My friend Gary and I have driven a mile or two (or a hundred) out of our way on vacations just to work in an extra park.