Record number of Junior Rangers sworn in at Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park Rangers swore in a record-breaking 22,600 Junior Rangers during 2015, the most Junior Rangers sworn in a year.

Ranger received their badges by either attending a Junior Ranger program or completing a booklet and taking an oath to continue to “Explore, Learn, and Protect” Yosemite National Park.

The Junior Ranger program, created in 1930 with the Junior Ranger Nature School, is designed to reach out to young people to educate children on being park stewards.

Yosemite partners with the University of California at Merced and NatureBridge to offer programs designed to reach out to young people in underserved communities who have never visited Yosemite National Park. These programs include Adventure Risk Challenge, Yosemite Leadership Program Summer Internship, and Parks as Classroom. The park also offers video conferences to schools unable to make field trips to the park.

The National Park Service will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2016.

The Junior Ranger program is funded by Yosemite Conservancy .

This story was originally published December 29, 2015 at 7:42 PM with the headline "Record number of Junior Rangers sworn in at Yosemite National Park."