By GINA KINSLOW
MAMMOTH CAVE — Mammoth Cave National Park’s Junior Ranger Program has recently become very popular, not only among the children who participate in the program, but their parents, too.
“The junior ranger program is a service program to reach out to kids and to try and get them involved with the park at their level,” said Leslie Price, a tour guide at the national park. “That way they can explore and learn about the resources at a child’s level.”
One reason that may attribute to the program’s popularity is it is now available free of charge.
At one time, visitors were charged $5 for each copy of the Junior Ranger Adventure Book, which provides instructions for a variety of activities.
Children earn bat points for each activity they complete. How many they can earn depends on the activity. The book features 27 activities.
Some of the activities are worth one bat point, while others are worth two bat points.
For example, one activity featured in the book is called “Put Your Ranger Hat On.”
In this activity, children are asked to write the letter “Y” for the word “Yes,” or the letter “N” for the word “No,” after seven statements. If the statements describe proper park ranger behavior, then the children write the letter “Y.” If the statement does not describer proper park ranger behavior, then the children write the letter “N.”
Children can earn one bat point for completing the activity.
Children can earn a Junior Ranger badge by completing a specific number of bat points required for various age groups.
Children who are 5 and younger must collect five bat points to get their Junior Ranger badge, while children who are 12 and older must collect 15 bat points to get their Junior Ranger badge.
Eight-year-old Amanda Pennings, of Clearwater, Fla., recently visited Mammoth Cave with her family. Because of her age, she had to collect nine bat points in order to get her badge.
Pennings said she felt “excited” about receiving her Junior Ranger badge.
Her favorite activity, she said, “was where you had to get the person who was sick and bring them out of the cave.”
Children who think they have earned enough bat points for their badge must go to the national park’s visitors’ center and have their book checked by a park ranger. If they have earned enough points, the park ranger will then make an announcement over the park’s public address system that they have earned their Junior Ranger badge.
Pennings’ mom, Mary, thinks the Junior Ranger Program is a great idea.
“They get these wonderful books. They have to do all kinds of activities,” she said. “It teaches them all kinds of things. It just teaches them about the environment.”
Approximately 300 national parks in the U.S. have Junior Ranger Programs.
“Our program goes back several decades, but it was being sold through Eastern National and there has been a big push to get the Junior Ranger Program free so it is available for everyone,” Price said.
Mammoth Cave applied for a grant through the National Park Foundation in order to be able to offer the program to visitors free of charge.
“That enabled us to actually publish the books and purchase the badges that the children receive once they’ve done all the requirements,” Price said.
In June, the national park printed more than 500 books. They are available inside the visitor’s center.
“It’s very fun. The kids love it. The parents love it. The rangers love it,” Price said.
