Spring Break Was a Learning (and Teaching) Experience for Some Manatee County Students

Manatee County high school students who sit on a Youth Advisory Council at the De Soto National Memorial recently had an opportunity to help shape the future of the National Park Service.

The Bayshore and Manatee high school students who make up the youth advisory council for the area's only national park, won a national park foundation grant to visit the nation's capital and while there got the opportunity to share their opinions about the country's parks and its programs with leaders in the parks service.

Local students met with Mickey Feam, the deputy director of the National Park Service who spent more than an hour with the students gathering their opinions on the park service, its programs and its future.

"I couldn't be more thrilled with the quality of the ideas and questions," said Scott Pardue, the superintendant for the De Soto National Memorial, who brought the students to Washington D.C. through "Ticket to Ride",  a national park foundation grant for students who volunteer for the parks services."This was a great opportunity for us as a community to shine."

Manatee County's youth are already being recognized. An employee at the San Antonio Missions recently called the De Soto Memorial to ask about the youth advisory council.

Feam not only asked the students for their opinions, he offered them a personal perspective of history. Feam told them how he attended Martin Luther King Jr.s "I Have a Dream" speech on the mall in Washington D.C. and how being there affected his life. 

Pardue hopes that in some small way the trip these students took to Washington D.C. will have an affect — small or large — on their lives. He also hope that their experience will help attract others to the youth advisory council. That the students will talk about their discussions and what they saw and that it will help attract other students to volunteer at the De Soto National Memorial.

Currently the youth advisory council is made up of students from Manatee and Bayshore high schools, but the park service would like to attract students from all of the area high schools. After all, it's an opportunity to contribute both locally and nationally.