5 Steps to Earning Your Ranger Patch

This past weekend, Girl Scouts announced an exciting partnership with the National Park Service to launch the “Girl Scout Ranger Program,” a joint venture connecting girls with National Park Service sites throughout the United States, including monuments, seashores, and urban sites.

Through this program, girls are invited to play outdoors and learn about national parks while developing essential leadership skills. Even better, girls have the opportunity to earn patches, complete Journeys and achieve Take Action and Gold Award projects!

So, how can a girl earn the Ranger patch? It's simple!

1. Choose a National Park Service site.Visit the National Park Service website. Choose a national park, a monument or any of 407 sites protected by the National Park Service. Explore nature, learn the history and read the stories to discover why it is important to preserve your park.

2. Imagine Yourself in a National Park.Brainstorm activities that you might want to experience at a national park. Consider working outside with a geologist or inside identifying fossils. Maybe wildfire restoration, building a bridge or a night sky project interests you.

3. Contact the park and make a plan.Call the park (the phone number is on the park’s website under Contact Us). Identify yourself as a Girl Scout. Ask if there is someone who works with the Girl Scout Ranger program or a volunteer coordinator. Express your ideas to the coordinator. Together, plan a project to help the park and fulfill your goals.

4. Go to the park and have fun!If your park does not have a volunteer program or is too far away to visit, create a Take Action Project.

5. Share the experience.Send photographs or emails of your project and time spent in the park or submit completed Take Action projects to GSUSA’s Map It Girls Changing the World.

Ready to learn more about becoming a Girl Scout Ranger? Click here to read FAQs!