Passport To Your National Parks® iPhone Application Honored by Association of Partners for Public Lands (APPL) Award

Fort Washington, PA, March 27, 2013 --(PR.com)-- The Passport To Your National Parks® iPhone Application was selected as the winner of the Electronic Media category at the 10th annual Association of Partners for Public Lands (APPL) Media and Partnership Awards. The awards recognize the outstanding contributions made by nonprofit partners to engage the public with our nation’s parks, refuges, monuments, forests, lakes, open spaces, and historic places.

Eastern National (EN), longtime partner of the National Park Service, launched the Passport To Your National Parks® program in 1986 as a means to promote visitation and appreciation of America’s national parks. The handy, pocket-sized book, which includes maps, photos, and other pertinent information, assists visitors in planning their visits to national parks. The program celebrated its 25th Anniversary in 2011. The Passport Application acts as a digital companion to the original Passport To Your National Parks® book. The Application includes information about each park, maps, and access to park websites. Users will have the ability to record their memories and photographs in the Application and can build a list of parks visited and parks they would like to visit. The Application also identifies the locations of Passport Cancellation Stations within each park. An Android version of the application has just been released, funded in part by a generous grant from the Motorola Mobility Foundation.

“We are so pleased that the Passport Application has been honored by APPL,” said Kevin Kissling, Chief Operating Officer of Eastern National. “The Passport Application allows users to easily find the locations of Passport cancellations within the parks. It also lists information about national park sites, including entrance fees, the Junior Ranger program, events, and much more. We hope to continue to fulfill our mission through visitors’ use of this Application and to appeal to potential park visitors.”

Eastern National is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) cooperating association, whose mission is to promote the public’s understanding and appreciation of America’s national parks and other public trusts. Operating educational and interpretive bookstores in over 150 national parks in the eastern part of the United States, Eastern National donates its profits from these operations to aid the interpretive, scientific, and historical mission of the National Park Service and other public trust partners. Since Eastern National’s founding in 1947, it has donated over $105 million to the National Park Service. Visit www.EasternNational.org for more information on Eastern National’s products and services.