Parkids Develop Untold Stories

Date: July 7, 2009

Porter, IN—Local teens will be learning how to create videos as they explore the diverse ecosystems of Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore this summer. This innovative summer program begins July 6 and is funded in part by the National Park Foundation.

As part of a weeklong program called ParKids, these teens will be meeting July 6-10 from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Bailly Ranger Station at the national lakeshore. They will be working with park staff to create a short video entitled “The Untold Stories of Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.” This student-produced video will be a local response to the upcoming documentary “America’s Best Idea:  The Untold Stories of the National Park Service” by filmmaker Ken Burns.

Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore received a grant from the National Park Foundation to develop this ParKids video project. The funding was used to purchase equipment for the students to use and to hire staff to coordinate the video project. The National Park Foundation awarded $500,000 to 35 national parks to develop outreach strategies and sustainable community partnerships.

Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore staff  will partner with Lakeshore Public Television, WYIN,  to coach the students. ParKids will visit the station for a behind-the-scenes tour and to learn the art of storyboarding. Throughout the rest of the week, the teens will visit a variety of park areas, interview local volunteers and staff working to preserve the dunes, and document their park experiences. The end product will be a short video showcasing a youth perspective on their neighborhood national park.

 
For more information on this and other programs at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, please contact Kim Swift, education programs manager, at 219-938-8221 or by email at e-mail us.

Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is one of 391 units of the National Park System ranging from Yellowstone to the Statue of Liberty. Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore includes 15 miles of the southern shorelines of Lake Michigan and 15,000 acres of beach, woods, marshes, and prairie in the northwest corner of Indiana. More than 2 million visitors come to this national park each year.