News Release

Gettysburg National Military Park now accepting applications for 2019 Great Task Youth Programs in Leadership and Service

A park ranger leads a Great Task education group through marching drills.

NPS Photo

News Release Date: March 21, 2019

Contact: Barb Sanders

The Great Task Youth Programs in Leadership and Service are for student or youth organizations, for grade levels 7 to 12, looking for intensive leadership and character-building experiences that go beyond traditional curriculum-based field trips. Applications will be accepted now through May for one or two day excursions, customized to match the mission and objectives of each youth organization. 

History can do more than instruct; it can also inspire. Selected participants of The Great Task program will follow in the footsteps of the men and women that made history at Gettysburg. With park rangers, educators and living historians, students will explore the 7,000 acre battlefield park, and participate in hands-on learning activities that bring the past to life, while illuminating the possibilities of the future.

“We facilitate life-enhancing experiences that seek to develop character and leadership traits in young people” explains Park Ranger, John Hoptak. “But over the past two years of working with these groups and going through these experiences with them, our lives have also been greatly enhanced.” Options include experiential learning on leadership, teamwork, integrity, perseverance and more, as well as opportunities to conduct a service learning project right here at Gettysburg National Military Park and/or take a college tour at nearby Gettysburg College. 

Participating youth then work to apply lessons of leadership and good character to identified community service projects in their own home communities. Participants include: LULAC National Educational Service Center in Philadelphia; The Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Richmond, Virginia; STEAM Academy in York, Pennsylvania; the New York City Police Athletic League; U.S. Navy Sea Cadet Corps; European Democracy Youth Conference; and more. 

The Great Task trips will be scheduled from July through October for just 10 groups. Limited travel and accommodation scholarships are available through the financial support of the Gettysburg Foundation. To learn more about these opportunities and to receive an application packet, group leaders and teachers can email the Education Office at [e-mail].

“The Great Task” initiative is named for a line in President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address from November 19, 1863 when he said:
 

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion…