North Palm Beach, FL (December 15, 2022) – Friends of MacArthur Beach State Park celebrated the opening of its new updated housing for their naturalist internship program with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Wednesday.
Facing the beautiful Intracoastal Waterway, the facility will accommodate two full-time resident interns during the fall, spring, and summer semesters.
More than 30 board members, staff, volunteers, and community leaders were on hand to celebrate. In addition to members of the Park community, Mayor of North Palm Beach Deborah Searcy was in attendance to speak and celebrate.
“The Park is an essential part of our community, offering 436 acres of natural environment within the Village of North Palm Beach,” said Searcy. “This facility exemplifies our continued commitment to partnership between the Village and the Park, the new housing will attract top tier students and provide incredible learning opportunities for interns to give back to our community.”
Over the last 10 years, the internship program at MacBeach has hosted 64 undergraduate and graduate students from colleges and universities across the country. Students have the unique opportunity to live onsite and gain hands-on experience in the areas of environmental education, park management, and learn what it means to work at and run a nonprofit.
“I am so proud of the internship program,” says Veronica Frehm, Executive Director of Friends of MacArthur Beach State Park. “We believe that our internship program should be more than a resume builder, it is an opportunity to gain real life skills in an immersive environment. Our interns aren’t getting coffee and making copies, they are teaching the future generations how important it is to be a good steward, they are helping take care of our animal ambassadors, learning about resource management, and they are experiencing the importance of teamwork. This housing makes internships possible at this park for so many students, it is incredible to be able to offer this housing to them.”
After completing the program, interns go on to many different career paths; working in state parks, national parks, nonprofits, environmental agencies, city sustainability jobs, and many continue their education attending graduate school where they participate in scientific research on various environmental and ecological subjects.
The first intern to reside in the new housing, a student from the University of Colorado, will move in next month in January 2023 for the spring semester.
The ceremonial cutting of the ribbon was performed by Mayor of North Palm Beach Deborah Searcy, Park Manager Andy Flanner, Executive Director of Friends of MacArthur Beach State Park Veronica Frehm, and Friends Board of Directors President Latimer Farr. Community members then had an opportunity to tour the new two-bedroom housing.
John D. MacArthur Beach State Park, Palm Beach County’s only state park, is situated on a barrier island between the Atlantic Ocean and the Lake Worth Lagoon. The Park is made up of 436 acres of pristine coastal land and contains four different communities or habitats including seven species of plants and 22 species of animals on the endangered or threatened list. For more information about MacArthur Beach State Park visit, macarthurbeach.org.
Click here to see the story in Florida Weekly.