Catoctin Mountain Park Day Of Service May 11th 2013
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Catoctin Mountain Park News Release
November 5, 2011
For Immediate Release
Debra Mills
On September 21, 2011 at an awards ceremony at Indigo Landing on the George Washington Memorial Parkway, VA, Debra Mills, Park Ranger at Catoctin Mountain Park received the National Capital Region’s Freeman Tilden Award for Interpretive Excellence. Named after Freeman Tilden, whose writings and teaching improved the quality of National Park Service programs and services based on visitor needs, the Freeman Tilden Award is the highest award presented to an individual National Park Service (NPS) interpreter.
While interpretation and front-line service have always been a major component of her duties, Ranger Mills has served in a variety of capacities during her 33 years at Catoctin Mountain Park. Ms. Mills organized the park’s first volunteer trail maintenance crew and started the recreational handicapped riding program at Camp Greentop while serving as the park’s Horse Program Manager. She was instrumental in the founding of the Catoctin Mountain Park Employee Association and held several offices in the organization, including multiple terms as president. She is a member of the National Capital Region (NCR) Diversity Action Team, the Catoctin Volunteer Coordinator and liaison to the park’s cooperating association, Eastern National.
Ranger Mills received the Tilden Award in recognition of the First Bloom program, a year-long project with Robert Moton Elementary School in Westminster, Maryland. She tailored the project, integrating the support and assistance of park partners from grant writing, to garden planting. Multiple field trips and in-school interaction with Ms. Mills and other park rangers introduced the natural world and national parks to 80 fourth graders, many of whom had previously experienced life through television and computers. Activities linked to the school science curriculum demonstrated the impact of invasive plants, human impact on water quality and the importance of balance in an ecosystem. Students were encouraged to incorporate technology while planning a native wildflower garden design. They planned a marketing strategy, won a national on-line competition and, earned a class trip to Washington, DC. The Visitor Center Wildflower Garden, planted by the children on April 26, serves as a tangible reminder of the positive impact of environmental education.
Biologists Becky Loncosky and Lindsey Donaldson, also from Catoctin, received the NCR Support to Interpretation award for their role in the First Bloom program at the same ceremony. Biologists Loncosky and Donaldson shared their expertise as Resource Managers to teach students about environmental processes, help them with tree-planting and to guide the garden research and planting process.
Catoctin Mountain Park is one of 394 units administered by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. The park Visitor Center, located on State Route 77 three miles west of Thurmont, Maryland, is open daily from 10:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., and from 8:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Correspondence should be addressed to: Superintendent, Catoctin Mountain Park, 6602 Foxville Road, Thurmont, MD 21788. Our website address is www.nps.gov/cato. General information can be obtained by calling the Visitor Center at (301) 663-9388.
By Chuck Dinkel
During the 2010 – 2011 school year, nine Frederick county schools participated in the Trout in the Classroom (TIC) program. TIC systems for two of the schools, Thurmont MS and Gov. TJ MS were funded by CFA. During the current year Carroll Manor ES has chosen not to continue in TIC. Their system has been moved to Tuscarora HS which is one of four additional schools that will join the program. The other three schools are Middletown HS, St John Regional Catholic School, and the Barnesville School. I have also had inquiries from Walkersville HS and Mountainside Retreat/Camp and Day Care Center in Urbana.
In 2008, Governor Martin O’Malley appointed a taskforce charged with identifying opportunities to expand and improve environmental and outdoor education in Maryland schools. What emerged from this group was the Maryland Plan for Children in Nature. On June 21, 2011, the Maryland Board of Education unanimously decided that one of the key recommendations of the plan be implemented, a requirement that all high school students complete a course of study in environmental literacy before graduation. Coupled with this is a desire by educators to ensure that all Maryland students have a curriculum-aligned Meaningful Outdoor Experience (MOE) at least once a year. It is possible that a percentage of the recent growth in the number of schools participating in TIC can be traced back to the 2008 plan calling for an increase in outdoor learning and the No Child Left Inside mandate. For example, just this summer one of the TIC coordinators, Chuck Dinkel, received inquiries from three high school science teachers about the program. At least two of these teachers plan to include TIC as part of their curriculum this year. These will be the first two TIC high schools in Maryland.
