When Richard Louv's book Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder started receiving national recognition, park professionals were not surprised by what he wrote about but pleased that it was somehow getting national recognition. But while so many organizations that deal with children and childhood development have jumped on the bandwagon, there still seems to be a disconnect with parents so that we continue to need the message spread.

A number of fantastic partners got together on Saturday, May 21, 2011 at Mason Neck State Park to pull the message together. Thanks to our partnership with Good Solutions Group (GSG), formerly known as Government Solutions Group, we sponsored a Kid Friendly event. GSG produces our Welcome Map (formerly Welcome Kit) that should be out in our parks next week. In order to produce this advertising piece for a number of state park systems at no cost, they develop partnerships with organizations that support our mission.

At the core of Saturday's event is our corporate partner The North Face. This Explore Your Parks partnership started last year and is spreading to more states and State Park systems this year. I will be writing another article about this partnership so be sure to look for it. The event was further shaped by a new initiative by the National Park Trust called National Kids to Parks Day which was celebrated nationwide on May 21st. Partners of that event is America's State Parks and Louv's organization Children and Nature Network. First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move Outside (PDF) is also a partner along with the American Hiking Association and Leave No Trace. Local partners Chesapeake Paddlers Association and Occoquan Watertrail League were also on hand to talk about kayaking and display some equipment.

Students and staff from KIPP DC Charter School attended

Kids from schools in DC (like KIPP DC) and as far away as Maryland arrived in busses Saturday morning at Mason Neck State Park for the event. As they arrived NPT mascot Buddy Bison and National Park Ranger Jeff Wolin entertained with great music and dancing.

We started with some short speeches with GSG's Shari Boyer as the MC. Yours truly welcomed the children, mostly 5th and 6th graders, to Mason Neck State Park and I encouraged them to pledge to spend more time playing outdoors. Other speakers included Grace Lee, Executive Director of the National Park Trust; Dr. Robert Zarr, President of the DC Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics; and Julie Chavez Rodriquez, Director, Youth in the Great Outdoors.

Virgina State Parks Marketing Manager Tom Cervenak uses an ice breaker with
his group of kids before their hike

After the speeches we took the kids on a guided one mile hike and they visited the partner booths. Mason Neck Interpreter Ricardo Hoyos led one group and central office Marketing Manager Tom Cervenak another. Other groups were led by our event partners. There was also an exciting race between The North Face's athelete Michael Wardian (he is the very tall adult doing the Buddy Bison dance with the bison hat in the video above), five-time winner of the National Marathon and The North Face Endurance team athlete, Buddy Bison, Leave No Trace's mascot Big Foot, and some highly competitive young people.

Here is a slide show of the pictures from the event.