News

National Park Trust and USDA Forest Service Announce the 2022 Every Kid Outdoors Transportation Grantees

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 8, 2022

28 Grants Awarded Will Get Nearly 9,000 Kids Outside

Washington, D.C. (February 8, 2022) – The National Park Trust is pleased to announce the first round of grantees for the Every Kid Outdoors Transportation Grants Program. In partnership with the USDA Forest Service, the National Park Trust developed the Every Kid Outdoors grant to support schools and organizations focused on connecting elementary school-aged youth to public parks, lands, and waters.

For over a decade, National Park Trust has been a leader in youth outdoor programming and has been actively addressing the lack of transportation to outdoor spaces – one of the most significant barriers to kids getting outside and experiencing nature. This grant supports the Every Kid Outdoors program, a federal youth initiative designed to provide every 4th grader in the United States the opportunity to visit public lands and waters for free with their families. The Park Trust and the USDA Forest Service understand that the great outdoors is an excellent classroom and hope the experiences provided by this grant program will help kids establish lifelong connections with nature and become the next generation of park stewards.

“We are delighted to expand our partnership with the USDA Forest Service by providing numerous nonprofits and schools across the country with Every Kid Outdoors Transportation Grants. These critical resources will allow thousands of children from under-served communities to discover our public lands and waters. For many of these students, it will be their first opportunity to explore the great outdoors.”

Grace Lee, executive director of National Park Trust

“The USDA Forest Service believes all kids should have access to nature – whether it be a community park or a National Forest. By partnering with the National Park Trust, families and school groups across the country are now able to go on outdoor adventures.”

Cynthia McArthur, national partnership coordinator for the USDA Forest Service.

This program was made available to 501I3 non–profit organizations and schools from all over the United States looking for resources and funding to connect their community’s elementary school-aged kids with local public lands and waters. The Park Trust and USDA Forest Service awarded 28 grants, up to $5,000 each, to qualified applicants – totaling more than $110,000. Learn more about these schools and organizations below.

2022 Every Kid Outdoors Transportations Grants Program Recipients:

  • Adventures Without Limits – Forest Grove, OR
  • Fundacion Amigos de El Yunque, Inc. – San Juan, PR
  • Akaka Foundation for Tropical Forests – Hilo, HI
  • Garfield APPLE – Spokane, WA
  • Alaska Discovery Foundation, Inc. – Juneau, AK
  • Gateway to the Great Outdoors – Chicago, IL
  • Asotin Elementary School – Asotin, WA
  • Gooding Soil Conservation District – Gooding, ID
  • Brevard Academy – Pisgah Forest, NC
  • Indigenous Cultural Concepts – Winslow, AZ
  • Center of Southwest Culture, Inc. – Albuquerque, NM
  • Kokua Hawai’i Foundation – Haleiwa, HI
  • Centro Unido Latino Americano (CULA) – Marion, NC
  • Ouachita River School District – Mena, AR
  • Coral Restoration Foundation – Tavernier, FL
  • PROJECT IMPACT 180 – Chicago, IL
  • Cowpasture River Preservation Association – Millboro, VA
  • Patchogue–Medford Library – Patchogue, NY
  • Crystal Cove Conservancy – Newport Coast, CA
  • Raton Intermediate School – Raton, NM
  • Cycling Schools, Inc. – Medina, OH
  • Sky Tavern – Reno, NV
  • Dolores River Boating Advocates – Dolores, CO
  • Sultana Education Foundation – Chestertown, MD
  • Friends of Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge – Prairie City, IA
  • Tennessee Aquatic Project and Development Group Inc. – Smyrna, TN
  • Friends of Tioga, Hammond and Cowanesque Lakes – Wellsboro, PA
  • Wylde Center – Decatur, GA
ABOUT NATIONAL PARK TRUST

National Park Trust is a nonprofit dedicated to preserving our national parks. The Park Trust accomplishes this goal through land acquisition to expand and “complete” our national parks and by creating a pipeline of future park stewards by connecting kids to parks. Established in 1983, the Park Trust has preserved nearly 30,000 acres in 31 states, one U.S. Territory, and Washington, D.C. In addition, since 2009, National Park Trust has engaged more than 3 million kids and families with the great outdoors through their national Buddy Bison School Programs and annual Kids to Parks Day. Find out more about the Park Trust’s mission of preserving parks today and creating park stewards for tomorrow at www.parktrust.org.

To learn more about Every Kid Outdoors, please visit https://everykidoutdoors.gov/index.htm.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Ivan Levin at 540.818.5818 or ivan@parktrust.org.