109 first graders at KIPP DC: Promise Academy joined the national movement to connect children to America's parks. Their school became the most recent addition to the National Park Trust's Where's Buddy Bison Been?® Pilot Program, joining 16 other pilot schools and art centers nationwide.

At the kick-off event, children listened to the new book authored by Rob Cohen, Buddy Bison Goes to a Park and saw pictures of where Buddy Bison has already been. NPT executive director, Grace Lee challenged the students to discover a new park taking the classroom's Buddy Bison with them.

"Our hope is that Buddy Bison can be used as a tool to inspire creativity, innovation, and healthier living in reconnecting children with our nation's parks. We are very excited to add three KIPP DC Academies - Promise, Leap and Key - to our growing list of Where's Buddy Bison Been?® Pilot Schools," said Lee.

"We'll use the Buddy Bison program to expand our traditional classroom to the great outdoors! We've already planned a field trip to the National Mall and Jefferson Memorial as a school. The program has energized our kids to get out and visit the national parks. Through our school's incentive program our students are encouraging their parents to take them to the parks with Buddy Bison in tow. Through simple conversations with parents and teachers about their experiences at the parks, our students are being exposed to new vocabulary words, new sights, and new experiences," says Khala Johnson, Founder and School Leader of the Promise Academy.

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 receive Buddy Bisons, NPT's wooly mascot, 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. Anyone can follow his travels on his Google map; become his fan on Facebook; and even read his tweets on Twitter.

ABOUT NATIONAL PARK TRUST
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 - especially those that are underserved - to nature. NPT's mission is to provide important recreational and educational parkland opportunities for current and future generations. As people spend more time indoors and as successive generations grow up with less of a connection to nature, NPT wants to build greater awareness and appreciation for the importance of our country's public lands and parks. To achieve this, NPT seeks to champion the acquisition and preservation of critical national, state and local parklands and to build a greater awareness through education - focusing on our youth.

ABOUT KIPP DC
The Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) is a network of free open-enrollment college preparatory public schools in under-resourced communities throughout the United States. At KIPP, there are no shortcuts: outstanding educators, more time in school, a rigorous college-preparatory curriculum, and a strong culture of achievement and support help our students make significant academic gains and continue to excel in high school and college.

KIPP DC: Promise Academy is one of seven KIPP charter schools in Washington DC and is the program's first elementary school. It currently serves first grade students and will expand through the fourth grade. It is located in Washington DC's Ward 7.

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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