Support JBL!

JBL! Lobbies NYS Legislators: “This History is the History of the World”

by | Apr 8, 2025 | Community, Current Events

This February, JBL! traveled to Albany, NY to share the impact of the Connect Kids to Parks program on JBL!'s Hands-on History initiative. Read more about our involvement in Park Advocacy Day.

On Tuesday, February 25th, a team from John Brown Lives! (JBL!) traveled to Albany, New York to participate in Park Advocacy Day. Keene Valley educator Patty McCormick, JBL! Arts and Cultural Programming Director Anna Forsman, and Executive Director Martha Swan (pictured above, from left) joined JBL! President Jeff Jones and nearly 50 Friends Groups to speak up for state parks, historic sites and public lands—our cherished commons.

Parks & Trails New York (PTNY) and the Open Space Institute (OSI) organized preparatory sessions and meetings between nonprofits and legislators in anticipation of the final budget being passed in New York State. With guidance from PTNY and OSI, nonprofits and Friends Groups lobbied for five major requests: 

  1. Increase the Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) to $500 Million 
  2. Increase Park and Trail Partnership Grant Program to $4 million 
  3. Increase Connect Kids to Parks Program to $4 million 
  4. Support proposed capital funding for OPRHP at $200 million
  5. Increase Adventure NY capital funding for NYSDEC to $100 million

Throughout the day, JBL! underscored the importance of expanding the Connect Kids to Parks Program in New York State. From 2023-2024, Connect Kids played a pivotal role in funding the participation of nearly 700 students in JBL!’s Hands-on History program. This included field trips to the John Brown Farm, a special school-day performance of Charmaine Crowell-White’s one-woman show about Harriet Tubman, artist residencies in several New York and Vermont schools with poet Gale P. Jackson, the folk duo Magpie, writer Amy Robinson, and theater artist Lindsay Pontius, and an interactive workshop with children’s author and scientist Loree Griffin Burns involving graduating seniors from Manhattan.

In Albany, JBL! lobbied as part of two distinct subgroups: Education advocates and Adirondacks/Catskills advocates. The JBL! team met with Jaida Coleman for Assemblyman Billy Jones, Deb Capezzuti for Senator Daniel Stec, Daniel Koerner for Senator Peter Oberacker, Kaleb Goodwin for Assemblyman Harry B. Bronson, Adina Beedenbender for Senator Monica Martinez, Olivia Amberger for Assemblyman William Colton, and Carman Bogle for Senator Jake Ashby.

Evan Beech, here portraying abolitionist Gerrit Smith Evan Beech on a Hands-on History field trip to the John Brown Farm in the spring of 2024, and his mother Rachel Dowty Beech, were unable to join us in Albany but Evan wrote to legislators that visiting the Farm on a JBL! field trip helped him realize that “this history is the history of my world…I feel for the kids who aren’t as lucky as me, who only learn about history from books.”

Educator Patty McCormick reflected on this year’s Park Advocacy Day:

“Participating in the Park Advocacy Day in support of Connect Kids was a powerful experience.  I had the opportunity to collaborate with others, speak directly to policymakers, share personal stories about bringing my students to John Brown Farm and emphasize the importance of continued funding for John Brown Lives! Hands-on History.”

JBL! is grateful to PTNY, OSI, and all those who make Park Advocacy Day possible on an annual basis. We look forward to lobbying again in 2026 and beyond.

Read more about Park Advocacy Day here. View the NY Assembly Member Directory here.