Great Plains Restoration Council “Serving our Youth, Protecting our Prairie Earth.”
Great Plains Restoration Council “Serving our Youth, Protecting our Prairie Earth.”
* The highlight of the 2008 Plains Youth InterACTION Summit is the historic first reintroduction of black-tailed prairie dogs to a corner of the property, which is the beginning of a major restoration ecology effort on the Cynthia Ann Parker Wilderness Area Recovery Project.
DOWNLOAD THE 2008 YOUTH SUMMIT PRESS RELEASE
DOWNLOAD THE CELEBRATION KICKOFF INVITATION
Youth Summit - July 22-26, 2008
The site chosen is up on a 45 acre corner of the flat top before the canyon drop near the entryway, a site that is excellent for wildlife viewing by visitors. Trail construction providing a short walk into the site will also take place. The prairie dogs will come from individuals rescued from poisoning or bulldozing in Lubbock. Site design is progressing now. We will be making every attempt to keep the prairie dog family groups together and their stress low during their time of rescue and relocation. Trained, experienced professionals are on hand to help guide through every step of the process.
GPRC needs sponsors, donors, and in-kind material donations to make the 2008 Plains Youth InterACTION Summit a success. Please call us at 817-838-9022 for specific item needs, or make a donation here.
In summer 2008, GPRC is planning to host a Plains Youth InterACTION Summit, in which Youth InterACTION participants from our various locations arrive in Fort Worth for an intensive week of interactive learning and outdoor education using our unique Ecological Health model. The youth, who will be coming from different backgrounds (inner city Fort Worth, rural Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, SD, mostly barrio South Valley of Albuquerque, inner city Denver, and the South Bronx, NYC, share many social challenges but mostly don’t interact. Through GPRC, they will not only be given the opportunity to learn from each other, but through workshops and hands-on Prairie/Plains restoration projects out in the field they will be given an intensive week of technical and skills raining, personal health education, and character and leadership development. Part of the time they will spend on the Fort Worth Prairie Park, part of the time they will spend 200 miles NW of Fort Worth out in our new 12,000 acre Cynthia Ann Parker Wilderness, which is a joint project between GPRC and very rural Foard County. (Next year, in 2009, we will likely have the Summit up on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, which is a very different world to most people because of its isolation, “third world”-like conditions, yet strong will to live. But our Indian kids wear the same clothes and listen to the same music as our inner city kids, so using the common bonds of hip-hop culture, they find they have much in common. Kids ultimately are kids! And everybody comes away from a Youth Summit enriched and energized, if exhausted, and with new personal tools for being an effective leader in the health of their selves, their community, and Earth.)
Some of the intensive Ecological Health workshops to be included in the 2008 Youth InterACTION Summit:
“Grassland Birds and a Buffalo's Wool – how each helps each other!”
“Bloodstreams and Creeks – Our Cardiovascular System”
“Our Digestive System – A Place for Litter?”
And many more. There will also be experiential intercultural learning, basketball games, music, swimming, and other activities.
