Exploring Our National Parks since 1999
Parks in Focus began with an idea: take a group of under-served city kids into state and national parks and open their eyes to
the wonders of nature in their own backyards by focusing their gaze through the lens of a camera.
During week-long trips, middle school members of local Boys & Girls Clubs, many of whom have never before left their local
communities, are introduced to some of the most beautiful natural landscapes in the country. They are provided with digital
cameras to use and keep and they learn the fundamentals of photography, ecology, and conservation while hiking, identifying,
and, sometimes, singing their way through national parks, monuments, wilderness areas, and other natural public lands.
Since that first trip in 1999, Parks in Focus has taken more than 90 youngsters from the Tucson Boys & Girls Clubs to sites
across Arizona: Sedona, Flagstaff, Pinetop and the national parks, monuments, forests, and wilderness areas surrounding them.
We've put cameras in their hands, field guides in their pockets, and led them into the ever-changing Grand Canyon, through the
lava flows of Sunset Crater, around the buff sandstone walls of Walnut Canyon, and past the ruins of Montezuma Castle. The
landscapes they've explored, the birds they've identified by their calls alone, and the miles of trails (both wet and dry)
walked by sneakers that rarely venture off concrete have opened doors to each participant of the Parks in Focus program.
Congressman Udall had advocated for early environmental education in order to inspire a love of this nation's natural wonders
in its future stewards. Inspired by this philosophy, then-Udall Foundation Trustee Mark Schaefer proposed Parks in Focus in
1999. The first Parks in Focus trip took 12 middle school students from the Boys & Girls Clubs of Tucson & Tempe to Canyon de
Chelly Monument in northeastern Arizona. With Sure Shot Owl cameras donated by Canon, and film donated by Eastman Kodak,
participants photographed the ancient cliff dwellings, mysterious petroglyphs, and striking geological formations. They also
learned about Canyon de Chelly's history, geology, and cultural significance to the Navajo people. In addition, participants
visited the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest National Park.