According to Kimberly Vaillancourt, who was Tuesday’s guest speaker of the Rotary Club meeting at the Hyatt Regency Saipan, 16 students from Tinian and Saipan have signed up for the week-long Discovery Eco- Camp Tinian 2009.
Vaillancourt said the first eco-summer camp held in June last year lasted for a whole week, but they are looking forward to extend the summer camp to two weeks, and eventually to a whole month once they have enough funding.
“The summer eco-camp is a wonderful experience for the children to interact with each other, learn new things and fall in love especially with science and mathematics,” Vaillancourt said.
She said that next year, they are planning to include students from Rota.
“Our target is to eventually invite other students from the U.S. mainland, and not limit the summer eco-camp to CNMI students,” she said.
Vaillancourt said they are planning to have more programs, adventures and get instructors for the children to have more activities like scuba diving and others.
“We are only hindered by budgetary constraints because the summer camp costs at least $300 for each participant,” she said. They are also targeting to hold two separate eco-camps for the different age brackets in the future.
Participants from last year’s eco-camp shared their experiences and showed slide photos with the Rotarians.
With Vaillancourt was John Furey from The Asia Pacific Academy of Science, Education and Environmental Management.
