2012 Coral Reef Summer Camp Graduates TONS of Kids

Each year, for the past 13, education and marine biology students from Smith College (in Northampton, Massachusetts) come to San Pedro to run a 2-3 week FREE summer camp with Hol Chan Marine Reserve for the kids of San Pedro.  On Thursday night, one of the graduates invited me to attend the party at the San Pedro Lions’ Den.

One cool thing about this program?  They teach the kids all about the island’s environment, how it works and how we need to conserve it, through games, super cool artwork, lessons, songs and visits.  Another cool thing?  I went to Smith College (Class of 1995) and had no idea this was going on in San Pedro.  (Okay…probably just cool to me.)

The kids performed some songs about the mangroves, reef and even coral polyps.  (They are graduating knowing WAY more than I do.)

The place was PACKED.  I’m guessing about 100 kids went through the camp over the past 2 weeks.

My favorite song was a remix of Aretha Franklin.  The coral reef needs a little R E S P E C T too.  Or the little diddy about zooxanthellae (tiny plant cells that live on and feed the reef) and coral polyps.  Always good to learn a new word.

The kids two favorite parts of the night?  When they first arrived, there was a running slide show of all the campers and their activities.  They were glued to this for about half an hour.

And the food…oh the food!  It was like a feeding frenzy at Willie Wonkas.

It was very funny watching kids LOAD up plates of goodies…

Even funnier was that the menu was comprised of two food groups.  Candy, cakes & cookies and chicken wings.  A strange mix…

8 out of 9 kids at the event agree.  Chicken wings are their favorite dessert.

I don’t think there was much sleeping that night.

Great job ladies from Smith College and Hol Chan Marine reserve.  What a great program to help kids kick off their summer in an important and extremely constructive way.

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