Letter from the Founder:

Dear Visitors,

I am a 1999 graduate of Oakwood High School.  My hometown is Muncie, Illinois, and I was raised in the Oakwood school district for nearly my entire childhood.  I currently live in Austin, TX, but when I got a call from my mother that Kickapoo State Park would be closing, I was quite frankly shocked, almost to the point of being speechless.  You see, my father is the ranger at Kickapoo.  Not only did this mean he was going to lose his job of nearly a quarter century, but since my parents live in a house owned by the state, which is on Kickapoo property, it meant that they would need to move from their home.  I immediately started thinking of ways I could help, and fortunately with the help of the web, there are many. 

I immediately started a group on Facebook.com, Save Kickapoo State Park, the first and largest in support of the park with 2000 people joining in just 9 days.  I have also been writing local school districts asking them to write letters to local elected officials.  I worked in some of these districts between undergraduate and graduate school as a substitute teacher and coach, and figured it would be one of the most effective ways to get large amounts of letters written, plus one of the most powerful messages in that it would be children writing the letters.  I will soon follow the emails up with phone calls.  I created a pdf petition which has been widely distributed and is downloadable here.  I have been posting regular updates on the facebook group, and keeping track of local support in the numbers of letters mailed and petition signatures garnered.  While there has been little response directly to me on the letters being mailed by schools, I have heard through the grapevine that letters are being sent.  Last, and most certainly not least, I am in the process of setting up this organization, most likely a private foundation, and a fund that will support Kickapoo State Park by donating items of want and need that are not provided for by the state budget.  In the future, we will also look to sponsor special events, grants, and field trips.  These activities will promote bringing visitors to the park as well as the practice and education of nature conservation. 

You might ask why raise funds to support a park that is closing?  Well, we are confident that if in fact the park does close, it will not be closed for long, and when it reopens our support will be there.  Some of you might wonder, why focus on Kickapoo and not all of the parks and historical sites slated to be closed?  Please do not mistake my effort and focus on Kickapoo as empathy to any other site's cause.  I will say that I am focusing my efforts on Kickapoo because it is a part of me.  Not only does my father work there, but as a child I spent many days there exploring, and in high school I developed a wanderlust and somewhat of a special bond with the park as a cross country runner.   This being a result of training on the many wonderful trails throughout the park, and competing on the main course.  I feel that by raising our collective voices, stating that we will not sit idly by and watch this park taken away from us, that we are in effect, although not directly, saying we do not agree with the closing of any of these sites.   If we can get the state legislature to review the budget because of our actions regarding Kickapoo, then it is likely to affect the other sites as well.  I for one am confident we will see Kickapoo open to the public for years to come, and I look forward to visiting it many more times.

Regards,

Cory Vandenberg
Founder