Editor's note: This is advertiser-supported content that appeared in the Essential Guide to Paddling the National Parks 2016.

Both still waters and those running fast and at times furious are plentiful across the National Park System, offering seemingly endless options for where to dip your paddle. You can drift across the reflection of the Tetons on Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, savor some of the West’s best whitewater in Canyonlands and Arches national parks in Utah, or retrace the path of Major John Wesley Powell’s boats with a modern-day adventure down the Green River in Dinosaur National Monument in Colorado and Utah.

With O.A.R.S. as your guide, you can tackle many of these classic rivers, streams, and lakes, and help contribute to the future of the National Park System. To help the National Park Service mark its centennial this year, the veteran river outfitter and adventure travel company is collaborating with the National Park Foundation on a unique program to introduce younger generations to the outdoors. Through 2016 O.A.R.S. will donate 1 percent of company sales to the Foundation from trips it offers in Arches, Canyonlands, Crater Lake, Grand Teton, Yellowstone and Yosemite national parks, as well as Dinosaur National Monument. The company also will contribute 1 percent of the revenues from its new hiking trips in Grand Canyon National Park.

O.A.R.S.’s trips sometimes come ashore, such as during a rim-to-rim trek at Grand Canyon National Park/O.A.R.S.

Such watery pathways as the Colorado, Green, Yampa, New, Gauley, Missouri, Mississippi, Current, Buffalo, and others make it easy to explore the National Park System while recharging your soul. These streams, some original “roads” when the young United States was growing, in many places flow through landscapes unchanged by man from their appearance 150 or 200 years ago. For many units of the National Park System, preserving these landscapes as best as possible is foremost for the National Park Service. For O.A.R.S., showing off the wonders of these landscapes, exploring them, safely navigating you through them, and contributing to their preservation also is key.

“We strongly support the mission of the National Park Service to ‘preserve unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the National Park System for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations,’” says George Wendt, O.A.R.S. president and founder. “By partnering with the National Park Foundation, our goal is to play a role in making park experiences possible for young people and to help them develop a passion for the outdoors.”

O.A.R.S. has committed a minimum of $50,000 through the end of 2016 to support the National Park Foundation’s mission to protect America’s treasured places, connect all people with parks, and inspire the next generation of park stewards. Additionally, O.A.R.S. has committed to an in-kind donation of $95,000 in national park trips to be used in support of National Park Foundation programs, such as Open OutDoors for Kids, to help get underserved youth into parks.

“Our national parks provide transformative, life-changing experiences that everyone deserves to have,” says Susan Newton, senior vice president of grants and programs for the National Park Foundation. “As we move into the second century of the National Park Service and look to connect all people to America’s treasured places through our Find Your Park movement, we are grateful for O.A.R.S.’s shared commitment to engaging the next generation of park stewards.”

O.A.R.S.’s history in exploring some of these watery corridors dates to 1969, when the company became the first exclusively non-motorized rafting outfitter authorized by the National Park Service to run trips on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Today O.A.R.S. caters to active travelers of all ages and abilities with more than 75 unique itineraries worldwide, including one-day and weekend escapes.

River trips, many suitable for children as young as 7, place a premium on family time. Following a riverside breakfast of dishes built around eggs, pancakes, cereals, and fresh fruits, days are spent drifting with the currents, swimming in flat-water pools, mastering a “rubber ducky,” and an occasional hike. Once you come ashore for the day, tents are quickly pitched and there’s time for relaxing in conversation or with games while guides work on dinner. Afterwards, campfires cast their soft glow off smiling, and tired, faces.

The Yampa River in Dinosaur National Monument is perfect for introducing youngsters to river running in the National Park System/O.A.R.S.

On the Yampa River in Dinosaur, trip participants get to float the last undammed tributary to the Colorado River system. On Jackson Lake, sea kayakers who join O.A.R.S. camp on an island in the afternoon shadow of the Tetons. At Grand Canyon National Park, the company’s guides lead rim-to-rim hikes that include a stay at Phantom Ranch on the floor of the canyon. Just outside Yosemite, you can join O.A.R.S. for white-water runs down the Merced or Tuolumne rivers and combine that experience with hikes in the park’s high country.

In working with the National Park Foundation, O.A.R.S. aims to introduce more of today’s youth to these environments and experiences, to develop in them a life-long love not just for the outdoors in general, but for the national parks specifically.

Traveler footnote: You can help contribute to the National Park Foundation, enjoy incredible scenery, and visit with fellow park travelers on National Parks Traveler's July sea kayak trip to Grand Teton with O.A.R.S.