Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said: “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: ‘What are you doing for others?’” On MLK Day of Service in 2014, we hope you’ll be volunteering in our Golden Gate National Parks.

In 2014 at the Crissy Field Center, a National Park Service-supported program will provide more opportunities for kids to visit Alcatraz, a new program will give youth-group leaders the tools they need to lead park trips, and Summer Camp will get in shape with a Fitness Consultant!

Once a dairy farm, later an Army parade ground, and now an overflow parking area, the “surfer’s lot” at Rodeo Beach is being transformed. Learn more about the project, and some of the plants—grown by the Marin Headlands Nursery—that will help restore wildlife habitat.

International Migratory Bird Day has been celebrating migratory birds for 20 years, and here in the Golden Gate National Parks a free IMBD event has been held for 12 years running. Join us at Muir Woods on May 12, 2012 for bird walks, demonstrations, games and activities, and a chance to meet a live Spotted Owl!

Early in September, the Surgeon General made the simple (but highly salutary) act of walking a national priority across America. Learn how the Institute at the Golden Gate is heeding Dr. Vivek Murthy’s call, and how you can get “on a stroll” here in our parks.

The numbers are in, and things are looking good!

Meet Reema and Daniel.

For our Annual Report to the Community, we reached out to members and others in our parks community to see if they would share their reasons for loving parks. Here are some of their responses.

In 1806, Maria de la Concepcion and Nikolai Petrovich Rezanov fell in love at the Spanish Presidio of San Francisco—despite their differences in culture, language, and religion. And then, the only thing that stood between them and wedded bliss was the vast frozen expanse of Siberia.

For two months this year following the shelter-in-place order, the five gardens at Alcatraz grew wild and untended until Shelagh Fritz, the Senior Program Manager on the island, was able to return. The history of the Alcatraz Gardens is one of careful planning, wild growth, and dedicated work.