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Narration Chris Holmes grew up spending most of his
time outdoors.
[Chris] I grew up in the Peak District National Park in England so I've always been around
wild places.
Narration Having worked in the national parks in both
Australia and New Zealand, Chris found his way to Texas ten years ago.
[Dan Sholly] He's probably the best thing the British have ever given the United States.
[Chris] The national park system in the U.K. is a bit different than it is here. I think
the biggest difference is the sheer size. Texas is a huge state.
[Chris] My real passion is to get people back into our parks. That's what I really believe
in. I think they are such valuable places in Texas especially Texas being so privately
owned.
Narration To do that, Chris took an existing program
called Texas Outdoor Family and cultivated it into a win-win for both the agency and
the people of Texas.
[Dan] Chris and his staff are out there every weekend, hundreds and hundreds of families
around the state, showing them how to put up a tent, how to cook over a campfire, how
to be safe while using the park...Chris almost single-handedly was able to take the Texas
Outdoor Family Program and turn it into gold for Texas state parks.
Narration And though he may not sound like a Texan.
[Chris] East Texas is what I tell people.
Narration He couldn't be a more proud one.
[Chris] Last year, I think I camped out 70 nights in a state park.
Narration And he wasn't alone.
[Chris] We have over eight-million visits to a state park every year. We deliver programs
to over 800 thousand people so that's 800-thousand opportunities that we can spread our mission.
And if it means he has to put his mug out there.
[Chris] All you need is a GPS or a smart phone, here's how it works. Laughs.
He's willing to do it to get people to the parks.
[Chris] We're running about forty percent of the people that go to the Outdoor Family
come back to a state park so that's a real tangible evidence that it's successful.
Narration And more people coming to parks means more
money to keep them open. [Camper] Guess what I think we forgot our
hotdog.
Narration But is it enough?
[Chris] We could never do enough in my mind. The mission is so important that every one
of our employees should be spreading the word and I think they do and I really want to get
more advocacy from our state park visitors so that they can help us. They can be ambassadors
to get more people outside because I really believe we were meant to be outside.
Narration For Texas Parks and Wildlife, this is Lydia
Saldana.