The following blog is an excerpt from “With a Little Help from Our Friends Alliance” by the National Park Foundation.
Today Katie Nyberg is executive director of the National Park Friends Alliance, a nationwide network of philanthropic partners supporting national parks. But before she became a national convener for park partners, she grew her love for parks where so many of us do — her local park.
When Nyberg talks about her early days working with national parks, she doesn’t start with stories about park landscapes or wildlife — she starts with people.
“We were all family,” she says of her partnership with the National Park Service. “We were coworkers, and we were all family too.”
She’s talking about her days as the executive director of the Mississippi Park Connection, the nonprofit partner to Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, a unit within the National Park Service. Working with the park that winds through the heart of the Twin Cities, Nyberg connected the local community with the river that defines their landscape.
What began as a quest to raise funding and awareness evolved into something deeper: making sure the river made the community a better place to live. “It wasn’t just about helping the community support the park,” she says. “It was about making sure the national park mattered to the community.”
That shift in mindset changed everything for Nyberg and the Mississippi Park Connection — ushering in an era of new programs and creative partnerships. From neighborhood tree plantings to community dance performances on the riverbank, Nyberg’s team gave people reasons to fall in love with their park.
Continue reading “With a Little Help from Our Friends Alliance” from the National Park Foundation’s blog here.
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