Secretary Salazar Opens Parks in Focus Exhibit at Interior Museum
Announcer: This is a Podcast from the U.S. Department of the Interior
Ron Tull: Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar was joined by Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva to welcome a new exhibit at the US Department of the Interior Museum in Washington, DC, Monday. "Parks in Focus: Connecting Underserved Youth to Nature Through Photography" is a program from the Udall Foundation and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America that introduced middle school students to the wonders of nature by giving cameras, some training, and then weeklong field trips to state and national parks.
Secretary Salazar commended the organizations involved and quoted renowned biologist Rachel Carson on the importance of introducing children to nature.
Ken Salazar: She said, "If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in." Today it is a great pleasure to celebrate National Parks Week by opening the "Parks in Focus" exhibit here in the Department of the Interior Museum. The beautiful photographs that are here today demonstrate what happens when you combine a child, a camera, and our national parks that are national wonders. You have a recipe for a lifelong love of the outdoors and a commitment to conserve these treasured landscapes for generations to come.
I salute the Morris K. Udall Foundation for creating the "Parks in Focus" program and working with the local Boys and Girls Clubs and individual national parks to give youngsters, who might never have had the chance to get into the great outdoors, the opportunity to explore a national park.
Thank you very much.
Ron Tull: The program began in 1999 at the Boys and Girls Club in Tucson, Arizona. One of its longtime advocates and supporters has been Congressman Raul Grijalva, representing Arizona's seventh district.
Raul Grijalva: As we go into the future and as we work hard to increase the visitors at our special places and our parks, increase the visitors to admire and to protect the wonderful legacies that we have, natural, cultural, and historic in this great nation of ours, whether it's the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, there comes a time that I think as this nation changes, its face changes some a bit, its demography changes a bit, it becomes more urbanized, that there is a need for us to bring into our national parks a constituency that's going to help fund it and protect it in the future. And programs like this are building that constituency and I'm very proud to be associated with it.
So as we celebrate these young photographers, I think we're also celebrating our future. It is good. There is optimism that a constituency is building that is going to take care of these places that we all individually and collectively love so much.
Ron Tull: The Udall Foundation exhibit will be open to the public from 8:30 to 4:30 on weekdays through December. The Interior Department Museum is located on the first floor of the historic Main Interior Building at 1849 C Street, NW, in Washington, DC.
For more information, call 202-208-4743 or visit the website at www.doi.gov/interiormuseum.
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Ron Tull: This podcast is a presentation of the US Department of the Interior Radio News Service. I'm Ron Tull, Washington.