(Photo Credit: BLM/Kim Mincer)
On Monday, August 10th at 10 am, many community partners gathered at Nunaka Valley Elementary School parking lot in Anchorage and celebrated a U.S. Department of the Interior “50 cities designation” at Russian Jack Springs Park. Mayor Berkowitz welcomed Deputy Assistant Secretary of the US Department of the Interior Kris Sarri as she made this exciting announcement.
“We welcome new resources to coordinate our many public and private partners to get kids and families outside,” said, Anchorage Mayor Berkowitz. “We know Anchorage is a great place to Live.Work.Play. year round, and we hope to give more kids the chance to experience the great outdoors.”
(Photo Credit: BLM/Kim Mincer)
“It is exciting to see so many community partners pulling together for a cause,” said Eleanor Andrews, Board Chair of the Anchorage Park Foundation. “Schools on Trails and Youth Employment in Parks will benefit from these federal resources, and that means kids from all neighborhoods in Anchorage will have more opportunities.”
As a result of this new funding, Get Outdoors Anchorage, through the YMCA, will be hiring a Get Outdoors Coordinator who will work with the many afterschool programs, schools, and community organizations to make sure kids get outside, get healthy, and experience what Anchorage has to offer.
Through the Corps Network and Youth Employment in Parks, the Anchorage Park Foundation is proud to accept an Americorps member to serve as the coordinator for Schools on Trails. The coordinator will work with schools and community partners all over Anchorage to find out what teachers and other programs need to get kids outside. The new program is announced with the Anchorage School District at Nunaka Valley Elementary School’s home trail – Russian Jack Springs Park.
Get Outdoors Anchorage is a coalition of public and private partners that first organized in 2008 to sign a Children’s Bill of Rights. The group signed a new and improved Children’s Bill of Rights on August 10, 2015.
(Adapted from the Get Outdoors Alaska website)
(Photo Credit: DOI)