By Yan Yang

Since nine youngsters from the Mayor’s Youth Program began working with the Greening Youth Foundation in early June, their summer has been filled with an impressive diversity of interesting activities.

As an environmental non-profit organization, GYF aims to transform students into future stewards of the environment. With the eight high school students and one college student intern from the Mayor’s Youth Program, GYF also hopes to deliver working skills and direct students to the right track in their educational careers. To that end, GYF structured a summer work experience filled with a variety of activities so that the students not only learn about environment, conservation, and beautification, but also explore different businesses and get counseling for future careers.

To combine learning with pleasure, GYF partnered with Providence Missionary Baptist Church to teach the students how to grow crops. In the first class, students were taught how to recognize some common vegetables and fruits. They also weeded morning glories in the peanut field. Since the students have only seen produce in the supermarket, this experience helped connect them with nature.

Youngsters working in the garden of Providence Missionary Baptist Church.

In another class, Ruth Kitchen, GYF’s Education Director, introduced them to a bin of worms in the soil to teach them about composting. Students were asked to pick the worms out from soil, put them in another bin and feed them with cabbage. The odor, along with their fear and excitement, made this lesson memorable. Through these intimate “conversations” with the environment, students can feel the wonder of nature and realize the importance of protecting the environment.

In addition to environment-related projects, students have had the opportunity to explore different Atlanta businesses and service the community. Every week, several students volunteer in WRFG, a local radio station. They not only help clean and answer the phones, but they also learn about the organization of a radio station and about career opportunities in mass communications. Everyone who works at WRFG is completely voluntary. There are no paid employees. Community members buy CDs and broadcast them through the station simply because they love music. The students were surprised to learn that some people have worked there for as long as 20 years. WRFG is a great example of dedication and passion, which are the crucial qualities in any career.

Another stimulating activity that has engaged the students have been weekly debates on environmental issues. Divided into two groups, students do research on the Internet and present their arguments, rebuttals, and conclusions. The presentations have given the students the opportunity to work on their public speaking.

“I was nervous and shivering,” said Traniqua Bolston, “but it was a good experience.”

In the third week, the students debated on a public street corner in Little Five Points, recreating the old street-corner soapbox speakers who used to be prevalent in many cities. Facing this challenge, the students performed very well. Sauda Jackson, GYF’s Youth Programs Manager, recalled that some of them showed great improvement in their presentations. Before this summer program, most of them would not have been willing to speak in public. However, now they can speak more clearly and exude an aura of confidence, which will be helpful in most careers.

Debate on a public street

From picking up trash in Inman Park Station to regular neighborhood jogs, from volunteering in different organizations to receiving career counseling, the youngsters from the Mayor’s Youth Program are having a memorable summer that undoubtedly will have a positive impact on their future endeavors.

WASHINGTON, DC – “Let’s Move Outside, Junior Rangers!” is First Lady Michelle Obama’s call to kids across the country this summer. Today, the National Park Service kicks off Let’s Move Outside Junior Ranger in 20 parks. National Park Junior Rangers will not only have fun and get exercise but also receive an extra reward for working up a sweat.

Young people who complete at least one physical activity in pursuit of their Junior Ranger badge receive a special sticker that designates them as a Let’s Move Outside Junior Ranger. The activities range from adventures like hiking with a ranger at Grand Canyon National Park to body surfing at Canaveral National Seashore and canoeing at Mississippi National River and Recreation Area.

Let’s Move Outside, led by the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture, provides tools and information to parents to make it easy to enjoy the outdoors and be active. It is part of First Lady Michelle Obama’s nationwide campaign to end childhood obesity within a generation.

“The Let’s Move Outside program in our national parks provides a wonderful way for parents to help their children gain a passion for outdoor recreation while teaching them about our nation’s beautiful lands, our rich cultural heritage, and our storied past,” said Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.

The program engages young people from all backgrounds in a range of educational programs and self-guided activities on America’s public lands and waters. From hiking and biking, to swimming, paddling, and horseback riding, these activities promise to be fun, healthy, and family friendly.

Throughout the summer, Let’s Move Outside! programs and events will be held in conjunction with schools, community groups, and other partners.

“Young people inspire us; we want to help them be vigorous and curious for life. It starts with family fun. National parks are amazing places where exercise is disguised as adventure, and we sneak in some learning too,” National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis said.

Let’s Move Outside will soon be integrated into other programs, like the Fish and Wildlife Service’s “Let’s Go Outside” initiative, which seeks to reconnect kids and families to nature in our country’s 552 National Wildlife Refuges, and the Bureau of Land Management’s “Take It Outside” program.

Primary federal partners in this initiative are the Department of the Interior’s National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Land Management, and the Department of Agriculture’s U.S. Forest Service.

“As a department that manages one fifth of our nation’s land, the Department of the Interior will play a vital role in Let’s Move Outside!” said Julie Rodriguez, director of the department’s Youth Office. “Our parks, refuges, and other public lands are waiting to be explored and enjoyed by our nation’s young people, and we are eager to help them get outdoors.”

By summer’s end, 50 national parks will offer Let’s Move Outside Junior Ranger.  Before heading out, visit www.letsmove.gov/outside <http://www.letsmove.gov/outside>  for more information about activities and participating parks. This website hub will link families to the great outdoors and give tips and ideas on how to best plan and enjoy an active visit.

The 20 parks launching today:

Canaveral National Seashore, Florida
Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Ohio
Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska
Effigy Mounds National Monument, Iowa
Fire Island National Seashore, New York
Fort Dupont Park, Washington, DC
Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, Colorado
Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee and North Carolina
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, West Virginia
Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, Indiana
Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, Minnesota
Mount Rainier National Park, Washington
New River Gorge National River, West Virginia
Prince William Forest Park, Virginia
Redwood National and State Parks, California
Rock Creek Park, Washington, DC
Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Michigan
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, Montana

National Park Service press release

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

DENVER — Question: How  can inner city youth make a difference regarding the future of some national parks in Colorado involving light bulbs?

Answer: Six motivated young people from urban Denver, on a mission, through four Colorado national parks in June that is part “green” activism, part outdoor adventure, and part American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) economic “stimulus” work.

The Green Renewable Energy Efficiency Network, or GREEN Project, is a joint effort of the Intermountain Region of the National Park Service (NPS) and the Greening Youth Foundation (GYF) of Atlanta. GYF works to develop awareness and appreciation of the natural environment, including national parks, among urban and minority youth. The foundation sponsors youth-outdoors events and helps young people find internships and jobs in the field.

In this case, six young adults from the Denver area will replace thousands of less-efficient incandescent lamps in the parks with fluorescent and compact fluorescent lights. The GREEN Project is a pilot venture that GYF hopes to repeat elsewhere in the country to train, employ and inspire more young people.

The $155,000 project ($116,000 funded through the NPS and $39,000 in matching grants from GYF) is being paid for with some of the more than $750 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds being spent this year and next on national park work projects across the United States.

This month, the corps of young adults (Sabrina Roy, Chic Dion Salibellas, JHarmon Smith, Michael Garza, Traemon McCabe and Raymond Bowels) have begun swapping out conventional incandescent light bulbs and older fluorescent components for more energy-efficient ballasts and lamps at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and Curecanti National Recreation Area, with joint headquarters in Gunnison, CO.

Once they finish their initial work there, the GREEN Project team will head to Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve outside Alamosa, CO, to do the same thing. From there, it will be on to Colorado National Monument near Grand Junction, CO.

Toward the end of the month, project organizers expect the team will have enough time to return through the parks a second time to finish any buildings and other locations they could not get to the first time.

Along the way, the six will learn more about the National Park System in a hands-on laboratory environment. On the weekends, the youth corps members will camp out and hike in the parks, learning “Leave No Trace” land stewardship principles for protecting the natural resources of the outdoors.

This success story is one that has the potential to change the future of many national parks across the entire National Park System by training and employing urban youth from different metropolitan areas and giving those individuals a unique exposure to the wonders of their National Parks,” said Kim Sliniger, ARRA manager for the Intermountian Region of the National Park Service.

“Greening Youth Foundation is excited about its partnership with the National Park Service for the Colorado GREEN Project,” said Angelou Ezeilo, executive director and founder of the foundation. “The GREEN Project will provide 21^st-century job skills training to these young adults and expose them to four different national parks. Simply put, this project epitomizes the very reason Greening Youth Foundation was founded: To provide access for diverse youth across the country to the many opportunities that exist in the environmental field.”

Changing light bulbs on this scale – more than 3,000 new ballasts and lamps – is no joke. Before leaving in June for their first stop, the young people spent most of May in the Denver area, where they trained in various OSHA safe-workplace procedures, Operational Leadership and other work skills. Much of their labor will involve climbing ladders and working in tight quarters. In May, the team visited Rocky Mountain National Park outside Estes Park, CO, to do a “dry run” for the lamp-changing project.

The six were chosen from more than 60 applicants in the Denver area and are supervised by two youth corps leaders.

CONTACTS:

– James Doyle, National Park Service: 303-969-2321; 303-594-9309, james_doyle@nps.gov

– Nick Chiles, Greening Youth Foundation: 404-254-4827; 678-333-1424, nchiles@gyfoundation.org