National Park Trust Honors NBC TODAY’s Al Roker with 2024 American Park Experience (APEX) Award
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 16, 2024
America’s Weatherman Accepts APEX Award on NBC’s TODAY for His Commitment to Celebrating and Promoting Our National Parks
Washington, D.C. (May 16, 2024) – National Park Trust is excited to announce that 14-time Emmy Award-winning journalist Al Roker has received the 2024 APEX Award. Since 2009, this national award has honored an individual or group that has made extraordinary efforts to enhance the awareness and appreciation of our country’s public parks, lands, and waters.
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The 2024 APEX award recognizes Roker for his passion for and dedication to our parks demonstrated through his nearly three decades of impactful storytelling on TODAY. Roker’s spotlight on our national parks has inspired viewers of all ages and backgrounds to appreciate and explore our cherished treasures. Additionally, he has utilized his national platform to raise awareness of significant climate change issues that impact our public lands and waters.
Roker covered the 2016 centennial of the National Park Service and in 2022 he interviewed President Barack Obama on his lifelong passion for our national parks and commitment to addressing climate change. He has shared on TODAY a memorable camping adventure at Sequoia National Park with his “city kid” daughter Leila, a surprise trip to the Grand Canyon for three Brooklyn students, and most recently highlighted the National Park Service’s Junior Ranger program while visiting Shenandoah National Park. Roker has captivated audiences and championed the National Park Trust’s mission – to preserve parks today and create park stewards for tomorrow.
“Al Roker embodies the values of the American Park Experience Award. He enthusiastically and passionately encourages kids, including his own, to discover and explore our public lands and waters – and he has demonstrated an exceptional commitment to the stewardship of our country’s parks and the environment.”
Grace Lee, Executive Director, National Park Trust
“I am so honored to receive the American Park Experience Award. Our National Parks celebrate every facet of American life. History. Nature. Diversity and Freedom. There is no Nation without our National Parks.”
Al Roker
Past recipients of the American Park Experience Award include Filmmaker Jimmy Chin; Park Ranger Shelton Johnson; Hydro Flask for their Parks for All program; former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell; former U.S. Secretary of the Interior, U.S. Senator, and current U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar; and filmmaker Ken Burns and screenwriter Dayton Duncan.
Roker was presented the 2024 APEX award on May 16, 2024, on-air in Studio 1A at NBC’s TODAY by National Park Trust’s Executive Director Grace Lee. To learn more about the American Park Experience Award, visit: parktrust.org/american-park-experience-award.
ABOUT NATIONAL PARK TRUST
Our mission is to preserve parks today and create park stewards for tomorrow. Since 1983, we have partnered with the National Park Service to acquire many of the “missing pieces” of our national parks, benefiting 55 national park sites across the country. Our national youth education and family initiatives, including our Buddy Bison, College Ambassador and Military Family Programs, and National Kids to Parks Day, support tens of thousands of children annually and cultivate future park stewards. We believe that our public parks, lands, and waters should be cared for, enjoyed by, and preserved by all for current and future generations. Find out more at parktrust.org.
MEDIA CONTACT: Ivan Levin at 540.818.5818 or ivan@parktrust.org.
