Junior Rangers!

Today marked a milestone for the summer: I promoted my first Junior Rangers! Like most national parks, Pictured Rocks has a Junior Ranger program. Kids can get an activity booklet at one of the visitor centers, and if they complete a certain number of activities – depending on their age – they get a shiny gold badge that declares them to be Junior Rangers. Some kids get really into this and get them at every park – I’ve seen kids wearing a special vest covered in badges and patches! I got more than a few Junior Ranger patches myself growing up, but I think it’s gotten to be a bigger program since then. Still, I look at those kids and how enthusiastic they are, and it makes me think of myself back then – and if they’re that passionate, they may well end up doing what I’m doing in another ten or fifteen years. It’s definitely a great way to get them to care about the parks.

I’ve given out a number of booklets already, but today was the first time I had some kids come in with the packet completed! I check them over – not grading answers, but looking to see that they did the activities, and commenting on the various answers they put down. I write their names and mine on the special certificate on the back of the booklet, and then I have them raise their right hand and repeat the Pledge (which someone in a previous year wrote down and taped up near the desk.)

I promise

To help preserve and protect

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

And to help keep it beautiful

For those who come after me.

And to have fun!

(I always add that last line!)