ST. JOHN’S MEDICAL CENTER
JACKSON, WYO. – Grand Teton National Park is one of 37 national parks selected to receive a 2014 Active Trails grant from the National Park Foundation, the official charity of America’s national parks.
Since 2008, NPF has granted nearly $2.4 million through its Active Trails program, which supports healthy living by getting people out and active in their national parks organizing projects that help restore, protect, and create land and water trails across America.
“Through the Active Trails program, people across the country are connecting with their national parks, discovering more ways to lead active and healthy lives, and giving back to the places they love,” said Neil Mulholland, President and CEO of the NPF. “These grants are critical to helping with ongoing efforts to maintain and enhance the 17,000 miles of trails across the National Park system.”
GTNP will again partner this year with Jackson, Wyo.’s St. John’s Medical Center to encourage community members to get outside in support of the initiative. Local participants last year logged 3,887 hours of outdoor activities on park trails between Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day. This year the program has been extended through Sept. 30.
The GTNP/SJMC partnership supports an online tracking portal where participants can log their park-based activities. “The portal allows participants to accurately track their activities and energy expenditure while setting personal wellness goals,” said Julia Heemstra, director of the SJMC Wellness Department. “We’ve found that people particularly enjoy creating their own teams and competing with each other.”
Active Trails has engaged nearly 6,000 volunteers and 327 project partners who contributed more than 30,000 hours to promote, refurbish or build national park trails, that were used by 331,000 visitors. Find a complete listing of award recipients and their Active Trails project descriptions at nationalparks.org
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