Biscayne National Park Receives Ticket to Ride Grant from the National Park Foundation

Date: September 19, 2014
Contact: Matt Johnson, 786-335-3679
Contact: Alanna Sobel, 202-354-6486

HOMESTEAD, FLORIDA – Biscayne National Park is one of 65 national parks selected to receive a 2014 Ticket to Ride grant from the National Park Foundation, the official charity of America's national parks. The grant will allow students to participate in the Biscayne Explorer Program, where students mimic the inventorying and monitoring practices of park biologists. Now in its third year, the Ticket to Ride program provides the much-needed funds to make national park field trips possible for schools across the country.

"We know that one of the greatest barriers keeping America's youth from visiting their national parks is access to transportation," said Neil Mulholland, President and C.E.O. of the National Park Foundation. "Through our Ticket to Ride program, we eliminate that barrier and open up a world of experiential learning in our nation's largest classrooms –our national parks –and help inspire stewardship of these treasured places."

An estimated 1,500 Title I students will benefit from the grant provided transportation. The transportation will enable students to access the Dante Fascell Visitor Center and view Biscayne Bay. Students will identify the four ecosystems the park was established to protect while participating in hands-on activities. The activities include a bird and fish inventory, hardwood tree identification, coral study, seagrass food web and a mangrove exploration. For more information please visit https://www.nps.gov/bisc/forteachers/day-programs.htm.

"Thanks to a Ticket to Ride grant, Biscayne National Park will offer free bus and boat transportation to 1,500 students from Title I schools," said Superintendent Brian Carlstrom. "These students will experience the wonders of the park first hand, many of them for the first time. They will learn through experiencing the environmental education camps on a subtropical island and scientific discovery on the mainland.Past participants have shared with us that the camp was a life changing event.We hope these next generations of park campers have the same inspiring time learning about and enjoying their park."

The 2014 Ticket to Ride grants were made possible, in large part, through the support of Bayer USA Foundation, Disney, and Subaru of America. For the full list of park grantees, and their projects, visit the Ticket to Ride page on the National Park Foundation website. For more information on the National Park Foundation and how to support and protect America's national parks, please visit www.nationalparks.org. For more information about Biscayne National Park, please visit the park website at www.nps.gov/bisc, or follow the park on Facebook at www.facebook.com/biscaynenps, or Twitter at www.twitter.com/biscaynenps.

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About the National Park Service: More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America's 401 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Learn more at www.nps.gov.

About the National Park Foundation: The National Park Foundation is the official charity of America's national parks and nonprofit partner to the National Park Service. Chartered by Congress in 1967, the National Park Foundation raises private funds to help PROTECT more than 84 million acres of national parks through critical conservation and preservation efforts, CONNECT all Americans with their incomparable natural landscapes, vibrant culture and rich history, and INSPIRE the next generation of park stewards.