It took a Belgian...
We have been living in the US for some thirteen years. I have visited the US extensively for fifteen years at the time.
It has been an incredible dream-come-true that I didn't even dare to have as a child, since I was four years old. I first learned about some of this tremendous beauty by looking at pictures, post cards and visitors booklets about Niagara Falls or the Adirondack Region in Northern New York from a big box my parents had (in Romania) from when they were in the US in 1968. I would often sneak in the closet and "steal" the box and I could look at pictures and ask questions about them for hours, until my parents were bored with answering them all...
Many years later, in the US, whenever we had friends visiting from abroad, we'll take them to some nice places to visit, from Washington DC and Philadelphia to Niagara Falls. My parents did it for us, and we did it in our turn with our friends.
One day of July a couple of years ago we were on vacation in Austin TX and somebody suggested to go camp in the Big Bend National Park in the Rio Grande Valley in South Central Texas. The Belgian lady across the table whom I barely knew from the day before was going there. I asked "what's there to see?" "It is pretty, it is a desert mostly, but the canyon the river goes through are impressive, and they are said in the guide to almost resemble Grand Canyon somewhat". The tent and camping equipment was in the car anyway, as we were just coming back from a camping trip through New England. It only took some 10 minutes before my daughter and I decided to take a five day trip... In the next hour (it was about 3 p.m.) we decided to leave that very night, and drive the ten hours on I-10 West by night, to gain one extra full day for the visit.
We, my daughter and I, are avid Children's Museums goers. We have been for years. She must have visited some forty-fifty Science and Technology Museums in a minimum of fifteen US States or more. We lost count long time ago. We search for them and find and visit more of them all the time. Systematically, and with purpose... And we want to facilitate the creation of more, everywhere... as she is the Founder of "A Children's Museum in Every Town" Global Foundation, since she was five years old...
But this time... in the Big Bend National Park, it took a Belgian lady...
We got there in the morning, had coffee, and after stopping on the way to take a few pictures we parked at the Visitor Center, and went in to get a map and information about the park. This is when it happened...
The Belgian lady said "Look, it says here there is a Junior Ranger program you can do." "What is a Junior Ranger program?" came the question. I got all ears. This sounded interesting, and appealing, so I took to read the little brochure myself... Then we shared it with my daughter. "Well, that sounds interesting. You want to do it?" "Yes!" "Then, go ask the lady about it." "Daddy, you go ask!" "Oh, come on, I don't want to be a Junior Ranger. I think they wouldn't let me even if I wanted. I guess the first thing a Ranger does is to be courageous and ask something themselves if they need to know. Are you going to ask?" My daughter got the message and went to ask the National Park Service Ranger and got the brochure...
She was just about to enter third grade at the time... I was teaching public policy and management in graduate school, and have lived in the US some thirteen years, and have visited a few National Parks. I have proposed to my daughter's school teachers and administrators to take the children to Children's Museums.
Yet, I didn't see it. In spite of our always looking for interesting things for my daughter to do, that time it took a Belgian to show us the Junior Ranger program...
...the value of reading brochures and manuals... priceless...
The questions I propose however is why doesn't the NPS have a broad marketing campaign in schools, on TV, in alternative social media, from youtube to twitter... It seems like a decent solution to letting more people know about a great idea and its benefits we could harness in verys simple ways during vacations or weekends... It is already there, it is our tax dollars at work, why not making it widely known and utilizied?
The numbers look very good. About 230 million visits to US National Parks per year in 2008... with the US population at 302 million it could mean that about 75 % of Americans benefit from the richness of the parks... yet, of course that is not the case... more likely about 10 % or less benefit from visiting on average 7 times/parks a year or more... Can we improve that number? Would it be worth it? If so, how? Maybe we need a few more Belgians?;)
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