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One
Common Unity Brings Youth, Parents and Adult Professionals to End of Year
Summer Retreat On Sunday, August 10, 2014,
40 DC urban youth journeyed to Camp Round Meadow in Catoctin Mountain Park as
part of The Fly By Light: Discover Your True Nature (FBL) program, a pilot partnership with
the NPS National Capital Region (NCR) parks, which provides vulnerable D.C.
youth with safe spaces in which they learn to express themselves emotionally
and artistically. Children have diminishing opportunities to learn and play in
natural settings which are particularly critical to their emotional and
intellectual development as young adults. During
Fly By Light Retreat youth
are engaged in programming that provides safe spaces where they develop a sense
of efficacy and self-esteem while learning the skills necessary to resolve
conflict and communicate nonviolently to become responsible, emotionally
literate adults who are the environmental stewards of our future.The Fly
By Light curriculum fosters arts-based peace education workshops to inspire
inquiry, intellectual creativity, self-expression, empowerment and emotional
literacy through inter-generational dialogues and workshops in nature. The 40 Fly By Light youth come
from all 4 quadrants of the District of Columbia. National Park Service representatives
are participating in the week-long workshops, along with 25 adult professionals
and facilitators. Other partners with
One Common Unity include Embrace DC with Faith Hunter and Flow Yoga Center. The National
Park Service and One Common Unity were one of 39 national parks selected to receive a 2014 America's
Best Idea grant from the National Park Foundation, the official
charity of America's national parks. Inspired by Ken Burns' critically
acclaimed documentary "The National
Parks: America's Best Idea," this program builds partnerships between
national parks and community, state, and other public organizations, and engages diverse
audiences in meaningful and relevant ways with national parks and inspires participants
to become stewards of our National Park System. Media coverage is not permitted in
Camp Round Meadow, except at departure time, 12 noon on Thursday, August 14. Filming and interviews with departing students
is also encouraged at the Columbia Heights Multicultural Education Center, 3101
16th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009.Buses are scheduled to arrive at 2:30 p.m.,
Thursday, August 14. Catoctin Mountain Park is one
of over 400 units administered by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of
the Interior. The park Visitor Center, located on State Route 77 three miles
west of Thurmont, Maryland, is open daily from 9:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., and
until 7:00 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Correspondence should be addressed
to: Superintendent, Catoctin Mountain Park, 6602 Foxville Road, Thurmont, MD
21788. Our website address is www.nps.gov/cato.General information can be obtained by calling the Visitor Center at
(301) 663-9388. |
Last updated: May 16, 2018