If you've always wondered about visiting Rocky Mountain National Park, but didn't know what to expect, this video is for you. Narrated by Bill Kurtis, who rose to acclaim during his days at CBS News, this video highlights the lay of the land, from tundra to cataracts, showcases the park's renowned wildlife, and points to some of the adventures you can have in the park.
But the video goes beyond mere travelogue. Produced for the Rocky Mountain Nature Association, the national park's friends group, the video raises an important question: Who will care for Rocky, and the other national parks, after the Baby Boomers fade away? Borrowing from Richard Louv's book, Last Child in the Woods, Mr. Kurtis points to the pull technology has on today's younger generations and wonders about how powerful the pull of nature is on these generations?
All this lays the foundation for a $10 million campaign the Rocky Mountain Nature Association is mounting. Called The Next Generation Fund, this campaign aims to create an endowment fund in perpetuity that will pay for education programs in the park. One program that the fund helps support is the Junior Ranger program in Rocky Mountain. Another program, for a slightly older age group, is Internships and Fellowships, which helps underwrite the ecological studies of graduate students in the park. And the fund helps pay for new publications that open the eyes, interests, and imaginations of young and old drawn to Rocky Mountain National Park.
There are other programs paid for through The Next Generation Fund, but you get the idea. Check out the video and consider helping the association meet its goal.