We remain committed to Henry Ford's dream to provide every American with the means to enjoy America's open spaces. Our support for the National Park System has helped find solutions to support and protect these national treasures.
Sharing Expertise
As a Proud Partner of America's National Parks since 2000, we've shared our expertise and resources with the National Park Foundation and the National Park Service to develop innovative transportation and environmental solutions that enable visitors to enjoy the more than 390 National Parks without compromising their beauty.
Some of the National Parks projects we've sponsored include the following:
- Clean vehicles—We've donated hundreds of environmentally responsible vehicles, such as the Ford Escape Hybrid, to the National Park System. In Montana's Glacier National Park, we restored a fleet of 33 historic red buses from the 1930s so they'd run on cleaner-burning propane fuel.
- Transportation Scholars—Our sponsorship of this program helps place graduate students and transportation experts in National Parks for up to one year, allowing them to address some of the toughest transportation issues in the National Park Service. Since the program was formed, 50 scholars in 37 parks have helped develop real solutions to real transportation issues in the parks.
- Transportation Interpreters—We sponsor the placement of college-age interns to work on the buses, trains and ferries that comprise the alternative transportation systems in national parks. More than 232 interpreters in 44 national parks have educated visitors about these cleaner transportation options.
- Cultural Initiatives—Continuing our tradition of supporting education programs at pivotal historic sites, we provided a $3 million grant to establish an education center at the new Gettysburg National Battlefield Museum and Visitor Center, scheduled to open in 2008.
- Rosie the Riveter—We launched a nationwide effort to collect stories from living "Rosies" and the families of "Rosies" in 2003. Thousands responded, and the materials were collected and archived for use at the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, CA.
- Radical Renovation: School Edition Contest—We challenged classrooms to submit plans to make their campus more environmentally responsible in order to win $100,000 for an eco-renovation. National Park sustainability projects, such as the use of solar power and low-emission vehicles, were used as models for schools and National Park experts lent their sustainability skills as well.
- Gettysburg—We’re sponsoring the Ford Motor Company Fund Education Center within the new Gettysburg Museum and Visitor Center at Gettysburg. When it opens in September 2008, the education center will consist of two state-of-the-art indoor educational resource centers and three outdoor classrooms. Each year, more than 2 million visitors, including 200,000 students in school groups, will visit the center. In addition, 15 million people will visit the center’s online interactive multimedia experiences, which offer instant access to a variety of curriculum-based resources and historical databases. We’re also donating a specialized vehicle that will expand visitor accessibility to the Gettysburg National Park and its battlefields.
- MotorCities National Heritage Area—The United States Congress designated the MotorCities National Heritage Area in 1998 to preserve the cultural and historical landscape associated with the automobile in Southeastern and Central Michigan. Our support for this Heritage Area focuses on creating educational resources for family and adult lifetime learning, developing automotive education programs and experiences, and supporting MotorCities community outreach efforts.
More Information
For more information about America's National Parks and Ford's Proud Partner program with the National Park Foundation and the National Park Service, visit the National Park Foundation website.
