Challenge Cost Share Grant Funds Five Pictured Rocks Programs for 99 Detroit-Area Participants
Five overnight programs at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, built and led by fifteen partner organizations, reached 99 people across 437 participant field days.
MILWAUKEE, WI – March 15, 2022
A National Park Service Challenge Cost Share grant awarded to Get Outside Bus, then operating as Bus for Outdoor Access & Teaching, funded five overnight programs at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore over the past year, reaching 99 people from Detroit and the surrounding area.
The programs were run by fifteen partner organizations. Get Outside Bus supplied transportation, equipment, food and field support; the content, the participants and the decisions belonged to the community leaders who organized each one.
They included a BIPOC solidarity and outdoor education retreat, a BOLD & GOLD backpacking program for Detroit youth, a backpacking trip for Hamtramck High School, a weekend for Detroit Parks and Recreation staff and Detroit-area teachers, and a five-day program built around Michigan Ice Fest.
Seventy-one participants were under thirty, fifty of them under eighteen. More than ninety percent came from communities historically underrepresented on public lands. The programs produced 437 participant field days, and attendance ran at 116 percent of the project’s goal.
One outcome the grant did not anticipate: a Detroit Parks and Recreation center supervisor camped at Pictured Rocks as part of the project. It was her first time north of the Mackinac Bridge and her first time camping. Months later she brought two young adults from her recreation center back to the park for Michigan Ice Fest.
Hamtramck High School, where 95 percent of students are economically disadvantaged, started its first outdoor club after its trip, with athletic department funding for further camping.
“You could really tell who went on the trip. They were more engaged in class, and the effect lasted.”
— Jess Madden, Hamtramck High School
The Challenge Cost Share program supports partnerships that connect communities to National Park Service lands. The North Country Trail Association, the Sierra Club, the YMCA, the City of Detroit, the National Wildlife Federation and the International Wildlife Refuge Alliance all contributed funding or in-kind support to the project.
“A big thanks to the team at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore for their help in pulling this program together. What a joy to get to see so many Detroit-area partners enjoying some chilly dips and warm fires up north.”
— Micah Leinbach, Executive Director
Media Contact
Micah Leinbach, Executive Director
micah@getoutsidebus.com
(414) 803-7080