CELEBRATE VICTORIES

CELEBRATE VICTORIES

Inclusive community benefit

We promise to engage and inspire to transform community passion into tangible impact.
Your contributions to Great Parks Forever enhance everyday experiences and lasting legacies.

Inclusive community benefit

We promise to engage and inspire to transform community passion into tangible impact.
Your contributions to Great Parks Forever enhance everyday experiences and lasting legacies.

Nourishing

the wilderness to sustain healthy water and flourishing land

Building

bountiful spaces for you and your four-footed friends to roam free

Securing

forever homes for endangered
creatures

Current priorities

When Great Parks Forever is successful—

  • Great Parks trail network connects more communities
  • Great Parks remains financially sustainable for future generations
  • Our natural environment continues to nourish the region

Current priorities

When Great Parks Forever is successful—

  • Great Parks trail network connects more communities
  • Great Parks remains financially sustainable for future generations
  • Our natural environment continues to nourish the region

IF WE BUILD IT

GROOMING GUARDIANS FOREVER

IF WE BUILD IT

GROOMING GUARDIANS FOREVER

THE OVERLOOKED OVERLOOK

Conservation can sometimes be misunderstood as an effort to protect out of reach areas that have tremendous theoretical benefit. We are charged to make the promise of conservation accessible. What happens, then, when one local family stumbles on a hidden treasure in our Great Parks?

From nature & neighbors

Twenty years ago, William Garnett of Forest Park, and his wife, Gina Gerwin Garnett, discovered a quiet, rarely-visited area that was surprisingly full of colorful, native wildflowers. This moment would spark an intimate, annual tradition to pilgrimage to spot the first flowers of spring. Today, thanks to a generous donation from William in memory of Gina, we can now all enjoy this “double” gift of 26 acres of cleared and maintained forest complete with a wildflower overlook, interpretive signs, and educational programs.

THE UNSTRUCTURED GAP YEARS

Nature education and exposure are intentionally integrated into our young community members’ early years—school field trips, outdoor playground time, and summer camp fun. We are charged to make the promise of education lifelong. What happens, then, when several local foundations and national artists are invited to connect high school students and art to nature in our Great Parks?

Living classrooms

Without a bridge, and especially in underserved communities, our youth’s education can often be linear and two-dimensional. Enter the Art in Root program funded by our communities’ institutional stewards: John A. Schroth Family Charitable Trust, PNC Bank Trustee; Charles H. Dater Foundation; Susan Kathleen Black Foundation; and Louis and Melba Schott Foundation. Thanks to this visionary thinking, students attending twenty schools in our region are engaging more deeply with science, art, and the living environment through in-class and in-the-field applied learning.

THE DELICATE BALANCE

The interplay between form and function throughout the natural world holds us accountable. We are charged to make the promise of sustainability achievable. What happens, then, when seeds of sustenance for the Monarch butterfly population are planted at the Shaker Trace Seed Nursery in our Great Parks?

Royal gains

Following a remarkable downward trend in Monarch numbers, we were prompted to fund a seed cleaner at the Nursery to help put native seeds into production to contribute to a flourishing population. Now, this year—as anticipated and to our delight—as employees, volunteers, and the public embarked on their annual butterfly count, they observed the fourth highest in the count’s 33-year history: up 800% from 2016.

THE OVERLOOKED OVERLOOK

Conservation can sometimes be misunderstood as an effort to protect out of reach areas that have tremendous theoretical benefit. We are charged to make the promise of conservation accessible. What happens, then, when one local family stumbles on a hidden treasure in our Great Parks?

From nature & neighbors

Twenty years ago, William Garnett of Forest Park, and his wife, Gina Gerwin Garnett, discovered a quiet, rarely-visited area that was surprisingly full of colorful, native wildflowers. This moment would spark an intimate, annual tradition to pilgrimage to spot the first flowers of spring. Today, thanks to a generous donation from William in memory of Gina, we can now all enjoy this “double” gift of 26 acres of cleared and maintained forest complete with a wildflower overlook, interpretive signs, and educational programs.

THE UNSTRUCTURED GAP YEARS

Nature education and exposure are intentionally integrated into our young community members’ early years—school field trips, outdoor playground time, and summer camp fun. We are charged to make the promise of education lifelong. What happens, then, when several local foundations and national artists are invited to connect high school students and art to nature in our Great Parks?

Living classrooms

Without a bridge, and especially in underserved communities, our youth’s education can often be linear and two-dimensional. Enter the Art in Root program funded by our communities’ institutional stewards: John A. Schroth Family Charitable Trust, PNC Bank Trustee; Charles H. Dater Foundation; Susan Kathleen Black Foundation; and Louis and Melba Schott Foundation. Thanks to this visionary thinking, students attending twenty schools in our region are engaging more deeply with science, art, and the living environment through in-class and in-the-field applied learning.

THE DELICATE BALANCE

The interplay between form and function throughout the natural world holds us accountable. We are charged to make the promise of sustainability achievable. What happens, then, when seeds of sustenance for the Monarch butterfly population are planted at the Shaker Trace Seed Nursery in our Great Parks?

Royal gains

Following a remarkable downward trend in Monarch numbers, we were prompted to fund a seed cleaner at the Nursery to help put native seeds into production to contribute to a flourishing population. Now, this year—as anticipated and to our delight—as employees, volunteers, and the public embarked on their annual butterfly count, they observed the fourth highest in the count’s 33-year history: up 800% from 2016.

More victories are within our reach. 

Help us plant the seed.