National Park Week 2015 Encourages Everyone To “Find Your Park”

Date: March 31, 2015
Contact: Natalie Gates , 808-572-4400

Haleakalā National Park joins parks, programs and partners across the country to encourage everyone to find their park and share their stories online at www.FindYourPark.com. Launched yesterday by the National Park Service and the National Park Foundation, Find Your Park is a public awareness and education campaign celebrating the milestone centennial anniversary of the National Park Service in 2016 and setting the stage for its second century of service.

Find Your Park invites the public to see that a national park can be more than a place -- it can be a feeling, a state of mind, or a sense of American pride. Beyond vast landscapes, the campaign highlights historical, urban, and cultural parks, as well as the National Park Service programs that protect, preserve and share nature, culture, and history in communities nationwide.

“Find Your Park” is also the theme for this year’s National Park Week, April 18 – 26. During National Park Week discover the unique plants and animals of Haleakalā, many of which are found nowhere else on earth. Explore a trail at the Summit or at Kīpahulu. Participate in cultural activities. Help develop the park’s new Junior Ranger Program. All national parks will waive entrance fees on April 18 and 19.

A special highlight this year will be the pilot testing of new Junior Ranger booklet activities on April 19, which is Junior Ranger Day at Haleakalā. On Junior Ranger Day, kids who complete one new activity will receive a sticker; kids who complete three activities will get a Junior Ranger badge. The booklet will be improved and revised as needed based on their feedback. The final, completed booklet will be published this summer.

Throughout the week visitors can play national park trivia games in all park visitor centers and participate in daily talks, hikes, and cultural demonstrations. Activities will be posted at all visitor centers.

“We encourage local residents, families and visitors to visit and help us launch this exciting centennial campaign,” said Superintendent Natalie Gates. “These are your parks. We want you to enjoy them.”