The Sierra Club and Our National Parks

Youth and Diversity

San Diego ICO participants in Sequoia National Park. Photo courtesy of Sierra Club Inner City Outings, used with permission.

The National Park system, "America's Best Idea," belongs to all of us. The Sierra Club's Inner City Outings and Building Bridges to the Outdoors programs help provide children and youth of all backgrounds with an opportunity to have an outdoor experience.

People of all ages and backgrounds embrace the Sierra Club's motto to "explore, enjoy and protect the planet." The Club works hard to include everyone in its mission. Learn more about these programs and the Sierra Club's other efforts to include everyone in its mission on our Youth and Diversity page.

Enjoy stories of people of all ages and backgrounds exploring America's National Parks:

Parwana, 15, grew up in Pakistan, and immigrated to California with her family at age 11. Though her name means "butterfly" in Farsi, she was not exposed much to the natural world and outdoor activities until she visited her first national park at age 13. Read more...

Bill, 56, is a leader of the Sierra Club's Building Bridges to the Outdoors (BBTO) program. He believes that programs like BBTO are important in giving young people of color opportunities to experience the outdoors and develop an appreciation for nature. Read more...

As a Building Bridges staff member in Chicago, Douglas, 38, works closely with local Boys and Girls Clubs to lead youth on weekend excursions to local forest preserves and on annual trips to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Read more...

Melissa, 23, developed an appreciation for the outdoors on a family trip to Yosemite at age 10 when she and her family trekked to the top of one of Yosemite's waterfalls. "Near the top it was too slippery and dangerous for us kids, but I'd wanted to keep going." Read more...

Bill, 69, worked forty years for the National Parks Service (NPS) before retiring in 2007. Now retired, Spruill enjoys the national parks as a visitor and has fond memories of many of the parks. Read more...

JR and Shirley Crothers hail from Atlanta, Georgia, but since retirement they have spent many days on the road visiting America's national parks. "I've always wanted to travel cross-country," says JR, 65. "So after Shirley and I retired in 2004, we bought an RV." Read more...

Josselyn Bonilla, 20, is a senior at Mission High School in San Francisco. Originally from El Salvador, Bonilla immigrated to the U.S. at the age of seventeen. She is involved in Mission Graduates, a nonprofit organization that prepares K-12 students in San Francisco's Mission District to complete a college education. Read more...

Jorge Pinto, 16, is a senior at Mission High School in San Francisco. Born and raised in San Francisco by parents from El Salvador and Peru, Pinto enjoys outdoor excursions with family members. Through the Mission Graduates Outdoor Challenge program, he has participated in urban hikes, day hikes, and rock climbing. Read more...

Arturo Sandoval, 61, is the founder and president of the communications and organizational development company VOCES, Inc. and of the Center of Southwest Culture, which works with Latino and Native American communities to promote cultural education and economic development. Read more...

Japhy Dhungana, 25, is a freelance travel writer and a Sierra Club Outings leader. Born in South Africa to a Nepalese father and Filipino mother, Japhy grew up in Nepal and immigrated to Long Beach, California at age fourteen. Read more...