Frederick Students Present National Park Trust Partnership Award

Each year, the National Park Trust (NPTP) presents the Bruce F. Vento Public Service Award to recognize elected officials who display outstanding skill, service, and innovation in environmental conservation and park advocacy. This year’s honoree, U.S. Congressman Joe Neguse (CO-2nd District), received a special introduction by two polished public speakers and passionate advocates for U.S. parks and green spaces: Frederick Elementary School (FES) 5th grade students, Julian Grice and Kinzey Moore.

For the first time, FES was invited by NPTP to represent the school and present speeches describing their experiences with the environmental field trips they’ve taken over the past few years at FES. Since 2017, the school has been part of the NPTP-funded Buddy Bison program that provides outdoor experiences to underserved schools. Read about FES’s exciting field trips this past school year.

On June 3, Julian and Kinzey traveled to Washington, D.C. for the NPTP annual event. They shared their reflections on the impact of their FES Biddy Bison experiences (read them below in full). Their speeches were a highlight of the evening.

They were accompanied by:

• Jillian Zarra, FES Library Media Specialist and school coordinator for the Buddy Bison program
• Alexis Areallano, FES Art/Technology Teacher
• Deja Gladden, 3rd Grade Teacher and Kinzey’s mom
• Ashley Pearson, 4th Grade Teacher
• Destiny Taylor, 4th Grade Teacher

“The students did a wonderful job delivering their speeches in a room full of donors, board members and even a handful of teachers from Frederick,” says Ms. Zarra, who worked with the students on writing and practicing their speeches.  

Enjoy the students’ speeches:

Julian Grice’s Speech:

Good evening everyone,

My name is Julian Grice. Today I am going to talk about our experience with the National Park Trust’s Buddy Bison program and the field trips we’ve taken over the past few years while students at Frederick Elementary School. My first trip was in 3rd grade to Oregon Ridge Nature Center to study the process of transforming sap into maple syrup. That year in science we studied about Native Americans and on our trip we learned how Native Americans used maple syrup for survival such as using it for food preservation and trading.  

It was a cold day in February but we learned that sap from inside the maple trees only runs when it’s cold.  Even though it was cold, it still felt soooo good to be outside that day, using my hands (for example, we used tree bark to carve the tool that was used for tapping the maple tree). We were learning about the same subject in school but learning outdoors was wayyy more interesting than doing worksheets indoors. 

In 4th grade, we went on my favorite trip, canoeing around the Dundee Creek. I was a little scared to get in the canoe at first because they were rocking against the dock but then when we were in the boats and I felt how cool and refreshing the water was on my hands, I forgot all about being scared. Then I noticed lots of little fish and we even saw turtles, and it just felt really good being outside that day. I liked that I tried something I was afraid of.   

Being outside means I can learn about different  things. For example, I never knew that fish can live underneath the rocks, but I saw that during one of our trips when we got to put on water shoes and use nets to explore what lives in the Chesapeake Bay.  

Before all of our field trips I didn’t know that education could be taught outside but after these trips I now realize there’s so much more to learn and seeing the connection to what we are taught in the classroom makes the subject more interesting.

We are thankful to Congressman Joe Neguse for his dedication to protecting our parks.  I am also thankful to Ms Zarra for helping to plan and organize these trips with National Park Trust. Thank you for allowing me to be here tonight. 

Kinzey Moore’s Speech:

Good Evening Everyone,

My name is Kinzey Moore. You just heard from my friend and classmate, Julian, talk about how awesome our experiences have been over the past few years exploring public parks and forests. Without the preservation and conservation of these spaces we wouldn’t have the chance to learn outdoors.  

Last month, we had the opportunity to literally get our feet wet and explore the Chesapeake Bay to determine how healthy the tributary was. We used nets to discover plant life, measured the water’s PH levels and tested the temperature. Everyone agreed we would much rather be learning outdoors than learning indoors. On this field trip we saw the Oriole bird. I learned it’s very rare to see one and you can only see them at certain times of the year.  

As Julian mentioned, the canoeing trip was really cool and also my favorite. I just learned that these 10-passenger canoes are brought down from Mrs. Vento‘s home town in St. Paul Minnesota. It felt so different to learn without a desk in front of us but instead a paddle. This experience was my favorite because in science we had just completed a unit called “Save The Bay” and then we got to actually be exposed to the Chesapeake Bay. Before that trip, I never really knew it was possible to learn about things while not being inside the school building.  

The outdoors are really important for us because there’s so much more to see. When we’re on a nature hike or walking through the woods we can find so many things to look at and learn about which makes me feel more creative when I’m back in the classroom. I also feel more respect for my community and want to work on keeping my favorite park, ABC Park, clean.   

We’re thankful for Congressman Joe Neguse, for advocating for outdoor recreation spaces and public parks. Without these outdoor spaces, we wouldn’t have the opportunity to explore nature, learn about our outdoor community and become well-rounded citizens.