It's been over a month since the government shutdown first started and some federal employees have been, well, available.
Zack Frank, a 35-year-old National Park ranger is one of them. Parks have been largely unstaffed for over a month, jeopardizing worker's incomes, threatening park security, and ruining vacations -- among other completely avoidable consequences.
The mood is grim. So Frank decided to do something good with his free time: make educational videos of the 418 national parks he loves.
SEE ALSO:The sad silence of the National Parks Instagram accountsFrank was a photographer before he joined the National Park Service. He always dreamed of creating a project like this, he just never had to time to do it. Now he does, for better or worse.
"Since the parks are closed, why not use my knowledge to educate the public on where they can go and what they can see," Frank said in a phone interview.
Frank used footage he captured independently as well as footage available in the public domain. Since posting his videos to YouTube, Frank has gained over 700 subscribers and racked up more than 15,000 views.
These videos are good, folks. They're educational, they're thoughtful, and they're so damn pretty:
Frank is operating this project independently of his job (and yes, with a Patreon to support it). He just loves the parks that much. Who loves anything this much? I love Panera, but I'm not about to make a whole video series to bring more people to Panera. You'd be lucky if you got an Instagram story of my broccoli cheddar soup.
"We have 418 of these parks and collectively they tell the story of American history. We made the first national park. We have the largest ecosystem and the most diverse national environment," Frank boasted. "The parks tend to skew older. [Videos] are a way for people to engage with the parks."
While Trump announced on Friday that a deal has been reached to reopen the government, these videos will continue to serve the public, regardless of the government's status.
You can sob while you watch all of Franks' videos here.
TopicsActivism
(责任编辑：百科)
The U.S. will no longer have the final say on internet domain namesStitcher, one of the oldest podcasting apps, is shutting downWordle today: Here's the answer and hints for July 21TweetDeck is no longer free
You will love/hate Cards Against Humanity's new fortune cookiesSingapore gets world's first driverless taxis
SINGAPORE -- The world's first self-driving taxis started picking up passengers in Singapore on Thur
...[详细]OpenAI expands ChatGPT 'custom instructions' to free users
OpenAI's custom instructions feature that rolled out to ChatGPT Plus subscribers in July, is now ava
...[详细]'The Idol' finale: Why that hairbrush twist makes zero sense
Our Sunday evenings are finally free from the clutches of The Idol, but at what cost?The HBO show's
...[详细]Wordle today: Here's the answer and hints for July 22
Can't get enough of Wordle? Try Mashable's free version nowIt's Barbenheimer Saturday and in highly
...[详细]Mom discovers security cameras hacked, kids' bedroom livestreamed
A mother in Houston, Texas woke up one morning to pretty much every parent's worst-case scenario. 。 "
...[详细]'Peaky Blinders' responds to anti
The team behind Peaky Blindersconfirmed that it had not given Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis permission t
...[详细]X (aka Twitter) pays users now. Expect engagement bait to rise.
Prepare for your Twitter — sorry, X — feed to clog up with engagement bait.In July, owne
...[详细]Musk's X seizes @Music handle. Owner is understandably upset
Less than a week after X snatched the "@X" handle from a user, it has reclaimed "@Music," too. For t
...[详细]Make money or go to Stanford? Katie Ledecky is left with an unfair choice.
This is Katie Ledecky's world right now, and the rest of us are just living in it. Want proof? Ledec
...[详细]'The Idol' finale: What happened to that 'Rolling Stone' scene?
Much of the controversy surrounding the release of The Idolstemmed from an investigative report by R
...[详细]Aly Raisman catches Simone Biles napping on a plane like a champion
Wordle today: Here's the answer and hints for August 20