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While you may be able to paddle Class V rapids, make an all-day climb of a snow-capped peak, and spend a full week in the wilderness backpacking, can you lead and manage a group of teenagers on a local day hike?

The online mentor toolkit, created by The Outdoor Foundation, introduces new leaders to the soft skills that make great outdoor leaders. The material highlights stories, advice, and lessons gathered from professional outdoor leaders around the country.

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Outreach | The National Parks: America's Best Idea

The National Parks: America's Best Idea The Buffalo Soldiers: Yosemite's First Rangers

The National Parks Toolkit

Filmed over the course of six years at some of the nation's most spectacular locales, "The National Parks: America's Best Idea," is a six-part, 12-hour documentary series by renowned filmmaker Ken Burns. Partnering with Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) and PBS, The Outdoor Foundation has packaged its 'I Will' program resources for outdoor companies interested in using Burns' new film to engage new customers and participants in outdoor recreation.

Yosemite's Buffalo Soldiers

The Outdoor Foundation is working with Public Radio International's (PRI) To The Best of Our Knowledge, a nationally syndicated radio program heard on over 180 NPR stations, and independent radio producer James Edward Mills to reach new audiences with a story on the Buffalo Soldiers - Yosemite and Sequoia National Park's first rangers.

The story - virtually unknown even among the National Parks' most ardent supporters - will engage a segment of our population that is under represented in outdoor recreation.

Your Support
The Foundation and its partners are working to raise the funding necessary to tell this important story. Help support the project today! By sharing part of the historical contributions of African-Americans to the National Parks, this story will help engage new outdoor enthusiasts and new supporters of our nation's greatest treasures, our National Parks.

Download an overview of the project and learn more.

to pledge your support for the project or donate online below.

$

Download the toolkit to access a host of outreach resources.

The Film Event
"The National Parks: America's Best Idea," airing in September 2009 on PBS, will be a national television event with a major PBS advertising and public awareness campaign launching in January designed to engage Americans across the nation in learning about this precious national resource.

The Outdoor Foundation, OIA and PBS toolkit includes simple suggestions for outdoor industry companies interested in leveraging the awareness and excitement about the national park system generated by the film to engage their community and customers around the joys and benefits of the outdoors.