Kids in Parks receives grant to build 2 new TRACK Trails on the Parkway
The Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation’s Kids in Parks Program received a $15,500 Active Trails Grant from the National Park Foundation to help build 2 new TRACK Trails on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia. Funding for the projects will be provided by the National Park Foundation’s Active Trails Grant Program, a nationwide program designed to promote healthy lifestyles while protecting and enhancing our National Parks’ trail resources.
Jason Urroz, Director of the Kids in Parks program, said “We’re looking forward to opening two new TRACK Trails on the Parkway in Virginia. These two new trail locations will help complete a network of trails already established in communities surrounding the region. TRACK Trails are fun, easy and free and provide kids and families with an interactive way to explore the world around them.”
The TRACK Trail program is part of the larger Kids in Parks Initiative sponsored by the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation. Working together with partners throughout the community, their mission is to increase physical activity of children and their families, to improve nutritional choices, and to get kids outdoors and along the Blue Ridge Parkway.
The new TRACK Trail adventures in Virginia will be designed to help kids explore nature through the use of self-guided brochures. The TRACK program is superimposed on existing trail systems and includes numerous adventures for visitors to experience, maximizing the educational and recreational value of each singular trail. Motivational incentives or ‘prizes’ for participation are provided through registration on the web page, www.kidsinparks.com. In this manner, not only are participants motivated to experience the first trail, they are prompted to either return or visit another TRACK Trail in order to achieve the next reward.