The Urban Park Rangers are celebrating their program’s 40th anniversary, and they’ve got a whole slew of programs from archery to orienteering, that are perfect for getting outside without having to go far. And best of all, they are all free.
The Urban Park Rangers dates back to 1979, when the program was founded to combat the perception of New York’s parks being too unsafe to enter. The Rangers then and now serve as ambassadors, charged with introducing New Yorkers to the parts of natural world available right in their backyard. They also act as both advocates and educators on behalf of the urban wilderness. This page breaks down the entire Urban Park Rangers program by category, and here is a list of all the upcoming events and programming that Urban Park Rangers is offering. The green boxes indicate highly anticipated events while orange mark ones that are perfect for kids. There’s also a page of activities that are especially geared towards families with kids.
While all of the activities Urban Park Rangers offers are free and open to the public, many do require pre-registration, and some require entering a lottery to secure a spot on the outing. In particular, the camping trips like this one in Queens, require you to pre-register for a lottery through an on-line form. Everyone will be notified by email whether they’ve been selected to participate, and those not chosen will be placed on a waitlist. If you missed the registration, it’s worth calling to see if you can get on the waitlist. The registration form for the lottery is here.
I’m definitely trying out some of these.