Protect Our Parks: Help Fund the Tour to Defend What Belongs to All of Us
- Danika Fornear
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
In just days, three grassroots leaders—Dr. Cindy Banyai, Danika Joy Fornear, and Danielle Hagmann—along with their five children—will set out on an 18-day, cross-country tour to protect something sacred: our public lands.
The Protect Our Parks Tour is a multigenerational journey through America’s national parks, civil rights landmarks, and environmental battlegrounds. From Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthplace to the geysers of Yellowstone to the steps of the U.S. Capitol, they’ll shine a light on the threats facing these spaces—and the communities that depend on them.
But this tour isn’t funded by corporate grants or glossy greenwashed nonprofits. It’s grassroots through and through—and it needs your help to keep moving.
What This Tour Will Cost
With three adults and five children traveling nearly 6,000 miles through 18 states, the Protect Our Parks tour is a bold undertaking—and an expensive one. Your donation helps cover:
Fuel for two vehicles: $2,500
Campsites, lodging, & park access: $1,800
Food & water for 8 people: $2,200
Gear, safety, and accessibility: $1,200
Media & outreach supplies: $600
Emergency & contingency fund: $1,200
Total goal: $9,500
Every dollar goes directly to the families making this journey—to keep them safe, fed, equipped, and heard.
Why It Matters
This isn’t just a nature tour. It’s a protest on wheels.
Public lands are being sold off. Florida’s state parks are under threat of privatization. National parks face staffing shortages, hazardous neglect, and increasing inaccessibility—all while climate disasters and right-wing attacks intensify.
As they travel, the Protect Our Parks team will document the damage caused by DOGE—the so-called Department of Government Efficiency that has slashed federal park budgets and left behind crumbling infrastructure, shuttered visitor centers, and unmaintained trails.
This is an intentional dismantling of the public good. And we’re not staying quiet about it.
Your support powers the work of witnessing, storytelling, and resistance. It helps a disabled mother navigate inaccessible parks, funds supplies for grassroots media creation, and keeps kids fed as they learn firsthand what civic action and environmental stewardship look like.
This is what people-powered environmental justice looks like. And you can be part of it.
How You Can Help
Donate now through Save Our Democracy:
Whether it’s $10 to help feed a kid or $1,000 to cover fuel and gear, every contribution matters. If you can’t give, share this article, boost the donation link, and help us reach others who can.
Protect the Parks. Protect the People. Protect the Future.
This land belongs to all of us—and it’s time we act like it.