American Honda Foundation Awards Major Grant to ATC Classroom Program
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia (June 4, 2009)—The American Honda Foundation has awarded a $50,000 grant to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s innovative program to engage teachers and pupils in using the 14-state range of the legendary Appalachian Trail as a teaching and learning tool.
Since 2006, the “Trails to Every Classroom” program has trained 175 teachers in developing curricula in virtually all areas around the length, resources, and potential subject matters of the 2,178-mile-long national scenic trail, which stretches from Maine to Georgia and has its headquarters in Harpers Ferry, W.Va.
Through the teachers, the program has reached an estimated 7,000 pupils from kindergarten through high school, many from underserved rural communities. The teachers themselves have gone on to develop their own Internet-based networks, sharing lesson plans—from science to art to mathematics—and feedback from their schools.
The program, jointly operated with the National Park Service’s Appalachian Trail Park Office in Harpers Ferry, involves a series of weekend regional workshops each year, capped by a week-long summer institute at the National Conservation Training Center outside Shepherdstown, W.Va.
In a number of cases, pupils have “adopted” a section of the trail to help maintain it or have volunteered for various environmental-monitoring projects. Part of the purpose of the program is to entice a new generation into volunteering for trail work, since volunteers are the foundation of the Appalachian Trail. Last year, for example, more than 6,000 private citizens put in more than 200,000 hours of both outside and inside work in behalf of the trail.
The Trails to Every Classroom program also has been supported by the John Ben Snow Foundation, the Virginia Environmental Endowment, the Coca Cola foundation through the National Park Foundation, Leki, and Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI).
The American Honda Foundation was established in 1984 to make grants to worthy nonprofit causes, programs, and organizations in the areas of youth and scientific education. Celebrating 25 years of existence, it has provided more than $25 million in grants to organizations in 48 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. To find additional information about it, readers can go to www.foundation.honda.com.
The Appalachian Trail Conservancy, formed in 1925 to develop what became the first national scenic trail, is a private nonprofit organization with primary responsibility for managing the trail and the 250,000 acres of public lands through which it winds—among the richest in the nation in natural and cultural resources. Further information about its work and enjoying the trail can be found at www.appalachiantrail.org.
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