Richmond National Battlefield Park and Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site Welcome Centennial Volunteer Ambassador

Date: October 20, 2015
Contact: Kristen Allen, [phone]

Richmond, Va. –Lindsey Kellogg, a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will help prepare Richmond National Battlefield Park and Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site for the National Park Service's 100^thanniversary in 2016. She is one of 70 energetic, young Centennial Volunteer Ambassador interns recently selected to spend the next year connecting local communities to parks through volunteer group service opportunities.

Ms. Kellogg will recruit individual volunteers to serve the parks and recruit and manage volunteer work groups throughout the year, with a special emphasis on national service dates such as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Park Day and Earth Day. She wants to especially expand volunteerism among youth and college students. She will also be heavily involved in digital communications and public relations for the parks.

"The National Park Service's Centennial celebration will focus as much on our future as on our past," said National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis. "We are excited that young people, including our Centennial Volunteer Ambassadors, are stepping up as the next generation of conservation leaders. I know this opportunity will enable them to form lasting connections to national parks and the natural world. I also know that their contagious passion will inspire many others to do the same."

The Volunteer Ambassador Program is a partnership between the National Park Service and the Student Conservation Association (SCA) and supports the Department of the Interior's Play, Learn, Serve, Work Youth Initiative to expand educational, volunteer, and career opportunities for millions of youth and veterans on the nation's public lands.

"Volunteer service makes communities strong. In college I was a part of the service community through Alpha Phi Omega—the national service fraternity—and through internships, and I'm glad to be able to spend a year expanding ways to volunteer in Richmond so that others may have the same experiences," Ms. Kellogg said.

SCA President and CEO Jaime Berman Matyas notes that in addition to its role in the Centennial, the volunteer ambassador program is an important part of SCA's leadership development curriculum. "Transformative experiences like these yield crucial leadership skills and life lessons that empower these young people for lifelong success," Matyas said. "These service opportunities are also potent career pathways and, together, SCA and NPS are creating a workforce for the second century of national parks."

To learn more about the efforts of the Centennial Volunteer Ambassadors visit nps100sca.wordpress.com.