National Park Trust (NPT) kicks off a new innovative environmental program, called Where's Buddy Bison Been?(TM) at Capital City Public Charter School on Wednesday, September 23. The Charter School is the first school visited by the Obamas on their arrival in Washington D.C.

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.

"We are always looking for ways to inspire children to get excited about being outdoors. Buddy Bison is a unique tool to make environmental preservation fun and relevant to our students. We're very excited to participate," says Damon Cory-Watson, Adventure Coordinator at Capital City Public Charter School.

"Our hope is that Buddy can be used as a tool to inspire creativity and innovation in reconnecting children with our nation's parks. Kids will want to show where they and Buddy Bison have been at local, state and national parks-together with Buddy Bison, they will be motivated to climb mountains, find beautiful natural locations, and protect the parks and the environment with their family and friends," says NPT Chair of the Youth to Parks Committee, Diana Leon Taylor.

NPT's Where’s Buddy Bison Been?(TM) 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, plus Buddy Bison Toolkits, which include 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.

The event will coincide with the airing of the new PBS Ken Burns film The National Parks: America's Best Idea, which begins on September 27. Included in the Buddy Bison Toolkits to the pilot schools will be 'mini-docs' of the film, created specifically to tell the story of the national parks to young people.

The eight education centers selected to participate in the Where's Buddy Bison Been?(TM) School Pilot Program will help NPT shape a robust program that will be launched nationally. The pilot participants are:
Capital City Public Charter School is a small, award-winning public school of choice for children in Pre-K through 10th grade, celebrating its 10th year serving students in Washington DC.
E.L. Haynes Public Charter School is the first year round public charter school in Washington D.C. serving pre-K to 7th grades. The school will add a grade each year, expanding to 12th grade.
Washington Latin Public Charter School provides a challenging, classical education that is accessible to students throughout the District of Columbia.
Saint Ignatius Loyola Academy is a Baltimore-based independent, tuition-free, Jesuit Catholic middle school for boys of families of modest means, diverse races, ethnicities and religions.
Sitar Arts Center brings its diverse community together to give underserved children and youth the opportunity to explore and study the visual and performing arts in an afterschool safe haven.
National Presbyterian School is a traditional, co-educational elementary school dedicated to educational excellence in an ecumenical Christian environment. It was founded in 1969 as an educational mission of the National Presbyterian Church.
The Arts Horizons LeRoy Neiman Art Center opened in June 2008 and is becoming an integral resource in the Central Harlem Community. The Center has been made possible through a generous gift from renowned painter, LeRoy Neiman.
Sidwell Friends School is a co-educational Quaker day school for Pre-K to 12th grade with campuses in Washington D.C. and Bethesda, MD. Guided by its Quaker values, Sidwell Friends is committed to practicing responsible environmental stewardship.

At the Capital City Public Charter School launch event, two representatives from the Secretary of Interior's office will attend and make remarks in support of the Pilot Program: Melissa Koenigsberg, Chief of Staff to the Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, and Sarah Peterson, Deputy Director of External Affairs. Two National Park Rangers from Meridian Hill Park, a unit of the National Park will oversee the students' service project as well.

Momentum for the Where's Buddy Bison Been?(TM) Program has been building. This past summer, NPT sent more than 150 students through outdoor environmental education programs, thanks to generous donations from our sponsors, including The Rocksprings Foundation, The Yolande Leon Foundation, 3M, Bingham McCutchen and the National Association of Realtors.

NPT has also partnered with Nickelodeon on the cable channel's Worldwide Day of Play, which kicks off on Saturday, September 26. Where's Buddy Bison Been?(TM) launch events are part of the 1500 kick-off events nationwide. On the 26, Nickelodeon will stop its programs for three hours and encourage children to get outside to play.

Hollywood celebrities have jumped on board. Actors Rob Lowe and Jamie Lee Curtis explain the Buddy Bison program in a new NPT video, and teen actor Dominic Scott Kay has become NPT's first Buddy Bison Ambassador. Dominic is best known for his appearance in the film, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, as the son of Will Turner, played by Orlando Bloom and Elizabeth Swann, played by Keira Knightley. He also voiced the character of Wilbur in the film, Charlotte's Web.

Please go to NPT's website, www.ParkTrust.org to see NPT's video and the many photos of where Buddy's been, including with filmmaker Ken Burns, Senator Barbara Boxer, Actors Dominic Scott Kay and Q'orianka Kilcher, and many more.

This event is free and open to the media. For more information about the Where's Buddy Bison Been?(TM) School Pilot Program, please visit www.ParkTrust.org.

About NPT
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.

About Capital City Public Charter School
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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