National Park Trust (NPT) kicks off a new innovative environmental program, called Where’s Buddy Bison Been?™ at Capital City Public Charter School on September 23rd. NPT will launch the program at the Charter School's assembly for 240 students, followed by a service work project with student volunteers at D.C.'s Meridian Hill Park, a unit of the National Park System.

NPT's Where's Buddy Bison Been?™ initiative encourages children and their families to get outside, enjoy a park and then share their American park experience. Pilot schools will receive Buddy Bisons, a fuzzy brown plush toy, curriculum ideas, park maps, resource guides and activity sheets, allowing teachers to easily incorporate Buddy Bison into existing academic programming. Pictures of Buddy Bison, captured along his journeys are featured on NPT’s website, www.ParkTrust.org, along with stories, songs or drawings that he has inspired. Buddy Bison's Facebook page and Google map application allow his friends to follow him wherever he roams.

Eight education centers, including 6 in DC-area schools, will participate in the pilot program, which coincides with the airing of the new PBS Ken Burns film The National Park: America's Best Idea, which begins on September 27.

WHO:
National Park Trust
Capital City Public Charter School
National Park Rangers from Meridian Hill Park
Representatives from Secretary of Interior, Melissa Koenigsberg, Chief of Staff to the Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks

WHAT:
Where’s Buddy Bison Been?™ School Pilot Program

WHERE:
Capital City Public Charter School
3047 15th St NW
Washington, DC 20009-4211
(202) 387-0309

WHEN:
September 23, 2009
8: 30 a.m. - 9:50 a.m.

This event is free and open to the media. For more information about the Where’s Buddy Bison Been?™ School Pilot Program, please visit www.parktrust.org. National Park Trust is a 501(c)(3) non profit organization dedicated to the preservation and protection of our nation's critical parklands and reconnecting our youth to nature, especially those that are underserved.

Capital City Public Charter School, which received its charter in 2000, is a free D.C. public school of choice serving grades Pre-K through 10th, and by 2012, Capital City will serve students through 12th grade. The lower school draws its 244 students from nearly every zip code in the city, representing a wide range of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Despite serving a population in which nearly half the students come from low-income households, Capital City is among the top-performing charter schools in the District, with a ten-year record of educational excellence.

National Park Trust

National Park Trust

The National Park Trust is a nonprofit 501c3 organization. NPT is the nation’s only organization dedicated to the completion, and the full appreciation, of the American system of National and State Parks through the identification of key land acquisition needs and opportunities, the convening of potential funders to acquire these lands, as well increasing efforts to ensure that future generations appreciate and experience this national heritage.

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