Ep 32 | FREE Pass To Our National Parks

SPEAKER_02 0:00

So the National Park Service turned 100 years old. We had our 100th birthday in August of 2016. And as part of that celebration, President Obama put into place this Every Kid Outdoor. It was called Every Kid in a Park program at that point, which would give every fourth grader in the United States, including homeschool students, an opportunity to get a free National Park Service pass, which would allow them and their families into every national park in the United States for free.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Welcome to the Voices United in Education podcast. Each week we showcase the teachers, administrators, and community members who go the extra mile to contribute to the success of every student in Escambia County. You'll meet the real people behind the titles and learn about the amazing resources to support every student's success. In between screen time and school time lies an opportunity to get outside. But where do you go if you're wanting to enjoy the sunshine of our state and also want to make the time spent an educational outing? My next guests are a National Park Service Ranger and the Fee Program Manager for Gulf Island National Seashore. Today they're going to share a lesser-known program at a widely known place that gives fourth graders and their families free annual passes to parks like Fort Pickens. They're going to share how getting beyond the textbook can transform a 2D naturalist and history lesson into a 3D experience that becomes a core memory. Thinking globally, exploring locally, outdoor enthusiasts, Jennifer Watson, and Kaz Roseki. Thanks for being here.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

Thanks for having us. Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

I love the national park, so I'm so glad that you're here. I'm so glad that I ran into, you know, that one park ranger in the Discovery Center that day and that this is happening because for Pickens is just such a special place for me. So I can't wait to talk more about it and just let people know how they can get there for free, especially.

SPEAKER_02 2:06

We're excited to share a lot about you know what we do, about how to get people into the park, how everybody can come and explore just literally what's in their backyard.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

Exactly. So how did you get into the National Park Service?

SPEAKER_02 2:19

Uh, so I actually grew up in Colorado. Um, and I grew up actually going to Yellowstone National Park. Um What a bummer. I mean, gee, that's the real, you know, leftovers. Oh, it was it was awful, so awful. Uh, but my parents took us there every couple years, and I just remember um I was attending a park ranger program up at Mammoth, uh, Mammoth Hot Springs, and it was doing the junior ranger program. And I saw this seasonal park ranger giving a tour, and I was like, that's what I want to do. I want to get paid to hang out outdoors and learn really cool things and live in these beautiful places. Uh, so I actually went to school to become a park ranger, and here I am a couple, a couple years later, and uh just loving every minute I've been I've been able to, in this beautiful career of mine, been able to see so many different parts of our country and just see the different cultures that we have, get to meet different people along the way. And it's it's just been so rewarding.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

I can only imagine. That's incredible. What about you, Kaz?

SPEAKER_00 3:21

Yeah, so I'm from Indiana. Uh actually grew up with a national park very near my backyard. Uh today that park is called Indiana Dunes National Park. It's on the uh southern tip of Lake Michigan, very close to Chicago. Um, in elementary school, we did field trips to that park where we got to see uh a late 1800s working farm, got to see a farmer, the livestock, uh, and the homestead. Uh strangely enough, though, uh having that all right in my backyard didn't really make me think that uh one day I could be or would want to be a park ranger with the National Park Service. Uh, I actually had to go away from home pretty far to discover what I wanted to do professionally with my life. So uh uh towards the end of my college career, uh, I still had no clear idea what I was going to do afterwards. Uh it was kind of a stressful time as it probably is for many people. Um, but I I learned about an internship opportunity uh at Harper's Ferry National Historical Park in West Virginia. So I I applied, got a position, and went and entered into that work in the summer of 2010, but within about a week's time, uh so still during the introduction and orientation phase, that's when it suddenly became absolutely clear to me what I wanted to do with the rest of my life uh as far as a career. So from that moment on, I started working with the Park Service and here I am today.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Wow, that's so crazy. I think it's so interesting how both of you had these, you had these experiences as children that really uh were pivotal. And I like the contrast of your story, Caz versus your story, Jen, because you, you know, didn't really know the significance of it of the back of the national parks and the significance of what it would mean to your future, and you knew right away. But both of these stories involved getting in the parks. And I think that's what's so cool about the Every Kid Outdoor program that it allows families to go do that for free. So can you explain, Jen, how the program works?

SPEAKER_02 5:31

Yeah. So the Every Kid Outdoor program was actually an initiative that started in 2015. It was right around this time of the National Park Service Centennial. Uh so the National Park Service turned 100 years old. We had our 100th birthday in August of 2016. And as part of that celebration, uh, President Obama put into place this Every Kid Outdoor. It was called Every Kid in a Park program at that point, uh, which would give every fourth grader in the United States, including homeschool students, an opportunity to get a free National Park Service pass, which would allow them and their families into every national park in the United States for free. Um, and we continue to honor that program today as well. Uh, and it just gives you an opportunity not just to come to Gulf Islands and to Fort Pickens, but you can go to Yellowstone, you can go to Harper's Ferry, you can go to Yosemite, you can go to the Grand Canyon. Um, and it just gives you an opportunity, it waives those costs so you can go out and enjoy what's literally in our country.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

That's so exciting. That makes me think about those maps. We just got one and it's made of wood, and you put like a little piece of a puzzle in for every national park that you visit. But when I look at all of the parks that are on the puzzle, they don't match all of the uh parks that are actually out there. And so you before we were off, Mike, you tried to help me understand the difference between a national park and a national seashore. There's lots of designations. Can you help clarify the designations for people? Because it's a little fuzzy.

SPEAKER_02 7:06

Yes. And I'm sure Kaz can assist me with that. There are tons and tons of different designations. We have national parks, we have national historical parks, we have national monuments, national battlefields, uh, national lake shores, national seashores. And oftentimes they're all we're all managed by the National Park Service. We all have the same mission of managing of the National Park Service of managing our resources uh to be unimpaired for future generations so that they look the same in a cup in the in the next few years. Uh but essentially it a lot of it comes down to a how the park was designated and what's the purpose of it, um, and what is the priority of how it would be managed. Uh Kaz, do you have anything you'd want to add on that?

SPEAKER_00 7:50

Uh no, uh the one thing though is that um the National Park Service has a fascinating mission. Um of all of the organizations that make up the United States federal government, so all of those departments and all of the bureaus that exist, um, only one was organized to provide enjoyment to the American public. And that is the National Park Service. We are the only uh bureau or department, only entity of the federal government where you will find the word enjoyment within our uh mission statement.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

Our core mission statement.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

So we're very unique in that regard.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

And that is so cool. I did not know that. So help me understand the difference specifically between a national seashore and a national park, maybe a state park too, because um when you when you're on Instagram and you're tagging your photo in Fort Pickens, for example, there's a few options and there's state park, there's national park, there's all kinds of stuff. And that's where I've really started to realize I didn't understand, you know, what Fort Pickens actually is. So can you kind of give me like the most dumbed-downed version of that for me so I can understand?

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Yeah. So I'll I'll begin by kind of speaking broadly. Uh, whether it's a a local park or a state park or a national park, uh, they're all set aside to provide outdoor, possibly outdoor or historic sites uh to make these spaces accessible to people. Um so they are set aside for this novel idea, this uh sort of democratic idea where it's inclusive of everybody who wants to go. So in that sense, they're all incredibly important. Uh but whereas those local or state park sites, those might have um more closer connections to those immediate areas in which they exist. Uh their stories, uh almost per strictly speaking, pertain to individuals or events uh very specific to that site. But within a national park, you can find these places, these things, whether they're animals or plants or the stories of people that have national, these wide-ranging uh national connections. So that where whether you live in Alaska or in Maine or Southern California or Florida, uh it doesn't matter. These places have these things inside them that can belong, they do belong to everybody. Um as far as the technicalities behind what what's a national park uh uh and a national seashore, uh it all really kind of goes back to the enabling legislation that Congress passes to establish each of those sites. Uh legislation is going to lay out how those parks need to be managed and what sort of services they are going to provide.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

Oh, interesting. Okay, so it's not about like a national park is a national park because it's big, it's because that's how it's managed. Kind of like a nonprofit isn't a nonprofit because they don't make money, it's a tax delineation. Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

Okay, so Fort Pickens is a Fort Pickens is a place within one of the largest or should I say, most visited national parks in the United States.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

It's a place within a national park. Right. And the national park is the national seashore. Yes. Okay. So I think I'm gonna pass this test.

SPEAKER_02 11:27

Yeah, Fort Pickens is a it's a it's a well technically it's a fort, but the it we call it the area of we call it the Fort Pickens unit of Gulf Islands National Seashore, which is a unit of the National Park Service.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:43

So it's a place within a place managed by a government entity.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

And you said there's uh 424 units within the entire national park system in the US alone. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_02 11:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:56

So it's gonna be the all the other continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, and a lot of our territories, uh like Guam, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico. Um and most of those are free access already. Yes. Um the majority of our National Park Service units are free. It's a very small percentage that actually charge an entrance fee.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

Aaron Powell So for the every kid outdoors getting a free annual pass, that's uh quite a bit of savings because uh the the pass to go into the park is I think 300.

SPEAKER_02 12:27

It's 25 for uh one to seven days or $45 for the year. Um but you know, if you're using it for in addition to visiting Gulf Islands, if you're using it to go to some of the other parks in this area, you could be saving hundreds of dollars.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

Oh, okay. So that's a good reminder. It's not just good for one park, it's good for all of them. And so that really encourages people to get outside and get into those parks. Right. So once you're in the park, Kaz, I know you work a lot with the public and you do a lot of the programs. What are some of the ways that a fourth grader specifically, since we're talking about that, could engage with their family while and they're in the park?

SPEAKER_00 13:06

Yeah, so uh Golf Islands uh is widely used for recreational purposes. Uh so if a fourth grader can round up the family and get them in the car and go out to a place like Fort Pickens, they can go to a place like Langdon Beach where there's a lovely pavilion uh really close to the Gulf of Mexico. There's parking nearby, there's restrooms, there's tables, uh, and you can go there and go beach coming. You could go wading or swimming into the Gulf of Mexico, you can go fishing, you can go snorkeling. Uh, if you have a paddleboard or a small uh kayak you can launch from that site and go out, and even though you're in the Gulf of Mexico, you're still within your national park at Gulf Islands. It's one of the things I love about this national park is that the boundaries extend into our waterways, uh be it Santa Rosa Sound, Pensacola Bay, or the Gulf of Mexico. Uh if you're wanting to go beyond just recreating, uh, you could go and follow a nature trail. Uh you can go and explore the Blackbird Marsh Trail.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

Is this all in Langdon Beach or are you talking about a different location?

SPEAKER_00 14:16

So this is uh uh Langdon Beach is out at the Fort Pickens area of Gulf Islands. Uh the Blackbird Marsh Trail, the Sand Dune Trail, those are also out there within the Fort Pickens area close to Langdon Beach. Uh you can go and explore some really, really cool old historic structures, some of them made out of concrete. Uh the most notable one is made out of brick. Its name is Fort Pickens. You can go and explore some of the passageways. Kids love the dark tunnels inside the fort. There's large cannon. Uh, and you can learn about what our ancestors did hundreds of years ago to protect the United States and the ideals that our nation was founded upon.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

And talk to me about the Discovery Center, because that's how this meeting of brilliant minds, all that was the origin story, right? I wandered into the Discovery Center on a Sunday and spoke with the park ranger, and we bonded over sea turtles, and and now we're here. So when is the Discovery Center open and what do you do there?

SPEAKER_00 15:21

So the uh Four Pickens Discovery Center is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. Uh inside we have an information desk where you could meet a park volunteer, a park intern, or a park ranger. And from that person, you can get information about the park. You can get uh orientation so that you can learn about where different sites are and what services or amenities are available out there. But you can also find exhibits, and a lot of them are really neat. There are a lot of hands-on exhibits that will introduce uh all visitors to uh the natural world out there, to the barrier islands, to the Gulf of Mexico, and to the plants and animals that you could find out here on the Northern Gulf Coast. Uh, and then you can uh continue to explore those exhibits and learn about U.S. history, about human history here on the Northern Gulf Coast and out at a place like Fort Pickens. And then you can also learn a little bit about how the fort was given up by the U.S. military shortly after World War II and handed over to the state of Florida, which turned the fort into a state park for about 20 years before the state of Florida tossed the fort back over to the United States government and it was turned into a part of a national park. So it's just a wonderful place to kind of get a nice overview uh and a little taste of what Gulf Islands and a place like Fort Pickens has to offer.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

And all this stuff lights me up a hundred percent. Like I don't need to be sold because I'm already sold because I just I love going there. I love the history, I love the aesthetic of it. It's beautiful. People go there to take, you know, photos all the time. Um, but for the person who needs a little bit more convincing, for the person that goes, that's great, it's an old, an old, you know, fort that the to them it's not as intriguing. Why, in your opinion, do you think it's important to, even with that perspective, to go out there and explore these places, especially with their, you know, fourth graders?

SPEAKER_02 17:25

Uh so for me, uh it's important because when you're in school, you're often reading and learning about these types of events and places on a piece of paper or through a PowerPoint presentation. And so you're looking at this 2D picture, you're reading about it, but you're really I know for me, I don't know about everybody else, but I know for me it didn't really connect. I was like, well, that's cool. But that wasn't exactly how I like to learn. But stepping into a place that was built by people hundreds of years ago that was with was standing during the Civil War, that stood during World War One. Just seeing like, oh wow, like there's people who actually lived here. This was the purpose of this fort, and this is what it did to protect this bay. Just being able to see that come alive and be able to touch those stones, be able to explore the fort on my own instead of just seeing a picture of it, that just transformed everything for me. Um, and it, you know, even if you're not a history buff, I know that there's plenty of people out there that are like that's not my interest, is history. But it's still really cool to see. Like there's a really old building that people would built by hand. Like I just think that's extremely cool to just be able to go and see for yourself.

SPEAKER_01 18:45

And isn't fourth grade kind of when history starts in school?

SPEAKER_02 18:48

Yes. Oftentimes, and I believe that was actually why they picked the fourth grade year to start handing out these passes, was generally across the United States, that's the year that fourth graders will start to learn US history. So it gives our fourth graders an opportunity to go and see what they're actually learning about in school and to really help make a connection and drive those points home.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

Yeah, I would think that it would make the connection and help them to be a little bit more engaged. Kaz, you talked off mic about the power of play. Is that kind of related to what you believe is an important reason to get out there, or is that something different?

SPEAKER_00 19:23

No, I think that's an important reason to get out there. Um sort of following up on what what Jen's uh said, uh you can read and read and read about these incredible events, uh about ordinary people being placed under uh extraordinary circumstances uh and influencing in small individual ways, but taken as a collective, influencing the course of U.S. history. Um that happened at places like Fort Pickens. Um I I one of the stories that I love to share at the fort is uh about uh it's an event that took place just eight days after Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as president of the United States in March of 1861. Uh, these eight people, eight enslaved individuals showed up outside the fort's entryway. Uh they went to the fort from, it was rumored, Milton, Florida, hoping to get to Fort Pickens, then occupied by U.S. forces, believing that if they could get there, they could obtain protection and freedom. And this is the first documented instance of enslaved individuals entering U.S. lines in what became the Civil War. And this is something that unfolded here in the Pensacola area, not in a place like Maryland or Virginia where many of those Civil War events took place, but rather here on the Northern Gulf Coast. Uh, and so this is the first instance, this is sort of the start during the Civil War where enslaved individuals are starting to seize their freedom. They're not waiting for soldiers to come to them. They're not going to wait for a president or lawmakers to make decisions. They're going to go to a place like Fort Pickens and fight for freedom. Uh, so you can stand there. Uh and if you can learn about that event with a friend or with a teacher or a park rang or an intern or volunteer, uh, you could stand in this place where this great moment in US history began.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

Oh, wow. I did not know that story. That is really cool. Okay, so the free park pass. Can we can you tell parents how they can get it, how long it lasts, how it works real fast?

SPEAKER_02 21:31

Uh so it's good for uh the students' fourth grade year. It starts September 1st of their fourth grade year and it will expire August 31st. Uh, you do need to go online. I believe it's www.evrikidoutdoors.gov, or what I usually do is just Google every kid outdoors. Uh, and it'll bring you to uh a link and you do a very quick, like two minute activity. And essentially it's just to get kids to start thinking about. Hey, well, if we could go outside, what would we do? It'll come up with a barcode, print out that barcode, um, and bring it to the national park. Essentially, that barcode is going to act as your free park pass. Uh, but what you'll do, what we'll do when you when you get to the park is we'll take that piece of paper and we'll give you a plastic pass that's a little easier to carry around, a little more sustainable, that won't tear as easily. And you just show that as long as your fourth grader is in the car. Unfortunately, you do need parents, do need to bring their kids with them. You do really need to have a fourth grader folks. You need to have a fourth grader to go and use the fourth grade pass. Um and you'll just show that pass with the fourth grader and we'll say, Here, have a nice day.

SPEAKER_01 22:39

Um But so they need to print it, which means they need a printer with ink, which you know I know I don't have one of us. I mean, I have like half ink, and so it's kind of like rainbow every time I print it. Right. So, what are some alternatives? I think you mentioned that teachers could do this for a classroom. That feels more viable.

SPEAKER_02 23:00

Right. So um at what a teacher can do is they can actually generate a thing of uh like a whole piece of paper of barcodes. Uh so a teacher can go in there, so there's different ways that you can access it. So either a student could uh print out, do the activity and print out the barcode, or teacher can. And a teacher can generate, let's say they have 25 kids in their fourth grade class, they can generate 25 barcodes.

SPEAKER_01 23:23

Oh, that's cool.

SPEAKER_02 23:24

Um and then they could invite us at the National Park at Gulf Islands to come out to their classroom and hand out those passes there. Or if they wanted to print out 25 individual individual sheets, they could hand out those barcodes to all of the students as well. And the students could go to the entrance stations and uh change in their barcode. Um for a pass. For a pass, yes. Okay. Um, but also you can go to the local library, I believe Office Max or Office Depot will do printing for uh just a couple cents.

SPEAKER_01 23:52

Yeah, I mean schools have printers, so you could tell your kid to fill it out, I imagine. Yeah, and they could do it that way. What other ways are there to get a free annual pass?

SPEAKER_02 24:03

Yeah, so we have a variety of different passes. Um, so we have here at Gulf Islands, we have our Park Specific National Park Pass. Uh, so that one's $45. It only works to get you into Gulf Islands National Seashore. So if you're like, we love Langdon Beach, we love Johnson Beach, we're gonna go to those beaches and we go there every week. That is especially if you're local, that is that is a gold. Uh, you can save so much money with an annual pass. Um, if you're more like my family, where we travel all over the United States, there is what we call the annual pass. Um, it's good for all national parks parks in the United States for 12 months from month of purchase. So for me, if I was to go purchase my $80 annual pass today, it would expire at the end of February next year.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

And then there's ways for people to get free passes as well. So tell me the other ways that people, because you know, people love the F-R-E-E, the free.

SPEAKER_02 24:56

Yes. Uh so there are different uh free passes. You do need to qualify for them. So the the ones that I just mentioned, anybody and their brother could buy them. Um we also have passes that are good for U.S. citizen seniors, so those who are 62 and older. Um, I don't know how many people will be listening to on this podcast to qualify, but they're totally, or let grandma and grandpa know. Um we also have older parents nowadays. Oh, that's true. That's true. Um we do have free passes for active duty military and for veterans, um, which I know that being in this area, that is a huge thing. So if you are active duty, just show your cat card when you go through the entrance gate, and they will provide you with um a free military pass. Or if you are a veteran, um just show some some designation, don't show your DD 214, but some designation on your driver's license or a veteran ID card will get you a free lifetime veterans pass. They also have what we call our access pass, and that is for US citizens with a permanent disability, um, which you just have to sign an affidavit affidative to get, and we'll give you that pass.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

So lots of ways to get into the park. Lots of ways to engage. I love it. Um, is there anything before we wrap up that you want to be sure to tell parents about either national parks in general or specifically the national seashore where we're at?

SPEAKER_00 26:22

Uh so yeah, I'll lead off. Uh so uh we focused a little bit on uh, or quite a bit, I should say, on Fort Pickens, but uh the national seashore here is quite larger than that. So I want to take a quick uh moment to give a plug for the entire national park uh at Gulf Island. So it's one park, but we are located in two states. Uh that's how expansive this national seashore is. We cross uh town lines, city lines, county lines, and state lines. So we do have a Mississippi district uh anchored in Ocean Springs, Mississippi.

SPEAKER_01 26:57

That would explain the emails that I'm getting. Yeah. Because when I get the I met our friend at the Discovery Center, now I'm on emails and it says, oh, there's this cool tour going on, oh, there's this cool educational talk going on, which I'm so excited that I get these emails now. But it does mention uh the Ocean Springs area, and I wondered why. But now that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 27:18

Yeah, so you could join park rangers in our Mississippi district if you go there. Uh tell Ranger John and Ranger Victor hello from us in Florida. Uh but you could also ride a passenger ferry uh from Gulfport and take about an hour passenger ferry ride out to Ship Island, uh, explore another barrier island. Another fort is out there for Massachusetts. It's a sister fort to Fort Pickens. Um and then, of course, um here we have our Florida district. Uh across the Florida district, there are these six smaller areas. Uh, we have them named Perdito Key Area. Most of the uh local folks in the Pensacola region that are just gonna simply know it as Rosamond Johnson Beach. Um, but that is a place where you can go and use your uh every kid outdoors pass to get into. Uh on the Naval Air Station Pensacola, we have what's called the Fort Barrancas area. Uh in Gulf Breeze, we have the Naval Live Oaks area. On the far eastern end of Santa Rosa Island, we have the Okaloosa area, and then between Navarre Beach and Pensacola Beach, we have uh what's called the Santa Rosa area with uh the Opal Beach De Use area. Uh so it is a very large national seashore. It's the largest of the 10 national seashores and one of the most visited national parks in the United States, and that's right here in the backyard of many of those who live in West Florida, right here for them.

SPEAKER_01 28:39

That's so awesome.

SPEAKER_02 28:40

I would also throw out that um we actually have the Pensacola City ferries coming back uh this year, and they're actually going to stop at Fort Pickens. Uh so we finally got our ferry uh pier uh rebuilt. And so we are going to be starting to do um like tours from the Pensacola Bay out to Fort Pickens, stopping there. You can get a tour with a park ranger and go over to Quiet Water Beach near Pensacola uh beach and then come back. And that's also just a really nice way to spend like a Saturday or things like that. Just a fun way to get out there and see just a different part of uh Gulf Islands. Majority of our park is actually underwater and on is water, so it's kind of a fun way to see more of the park, is to get out on the boat.

SPEAKER_01 29:26

That's so true. So many good resources for parents to get outside and make it an educational event. Thank you so much for being here. This was great. Oh, thank you. Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and share. Voices United in Education is a production of Scambia County Public Schools.