NEW YORK: To increase volunteerism in National Parks and Public Lands, American Express and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell announced a multi-year partnership.
The deal directly supports Secretary Jewell’s recent commitment to increase volunteerism from 322,000 to one million annually by 2017.
The $5 million grant over four years from American Express will help the Department of the Interior (DOI) and National Parks Service (NPS) build volunteer coalitions to preserve and sustain America’s public lands.
The DOI is the steward of 20 percent of the Nation’s lands, including national parks, national wildlife refuges, and other public lands. Secretary Jewell has focused on volunteerism as a means of maintaining these public lands around the U.S. that have financial requirements that cannot always be met by government funding alone. In today’s era of governmental budget austerity, volunteerism is more important than ever in maintaining these American assets.
Timothy J. McClimon, president, American Express Foundation, said, “Community service and historic preservation have had a long heritage at American Express. Since our founding more than 160 years ago, American Express has seen how America’s parks and public lands contribute to our sense of national and local identity. We are proud to lead an effort to mobilize a new generation of volunteers to protect, conserve and revitalize America’s public lands and treasured national parks.”
