April 1999
WHAT'S NEW UPDATE FOR
BOARD
MEMBERS & FRIENDS
Repairing retaining walls knocked over by uprooted trees
|
April 1999
WHAT'S NEW UPDATE FOR |
Repairing retaining walls knocked over by uprooted trees |
Like a Phoenix from the Ashes, new staff housing will rise from the deck of the old Keebler and the hull of the Seagoing. Repairs to the fiberglass made the hulls water tight and the soggy wood interiors of the Seagoing have been removed. Redesigned interiors will provide shared staff quarters. The project is slated for this spring, for use beginning with summer camp.
Knight Foundation Awards Challenge Grant for $50,000 to rebuild the swim canal. To encourage additional participation in the Hurricane Recovery campaign, the grant will be awarded on a challenge basis with a $1 match for every $2 donated by Seacamp friends and alumni. So if you speak with Seacampers who haven't yet made a gift, please let them know about this opportunity.
The American Camping Association conference is held each year in March and six staff made the trek to snowy Chicago including Irene, Grace, Elena, Craig, Todd, and Brandy. Seacamp staff met joined members of a consortium that retained Personnel Decisions International to develop new staff recruitment procedures. Based on evaluations from camp staff on what makes a successful counselor, PDI offered marketing suggestions, designed an interview, rating strategy and questionnaire.
Lab and library resources - Many alumni remember Deb Coulombe's instructive and delightful renderings of seaside life from microorganisms to marine mammals. Now the busy mother of two, Deb has donated her science library to Seacamp. Program staff use these reference books, field guides, textbooks, and ecology papers and agency reports in their course preparation. Thanks also to the Navarro Family who contributed a 250 gallon aquarium system. Seacamp's marine aquaria course is very popular and with this tank we'll be able to demonstrate a state-of-the-art system, in addition to improving our year-round educational displays.
Monroe County's Tourist Development Council Features Seacamp in a marketing video being produced by Key West film company Pixel Logic. The video pitches Keys sites, from beaches and bridges to luxury homes, as locations for movies and television commercials to film companies in the United States and overseas. Shots of Seacamp include flat-tops in the harbor, Horseshoe Island, and the entry to the Staff Lounge complete with bicycles, boat board, and Instructor Gib Brogan playing ring toss. The producers said the building had an "funky Keys appeal".
Camping anyone? - When Elena Istomina returns to Moscow this month she'll be bringing a Russian-English Dictionary of Camping Words and Phrases compiled over the past years. It will be used this summer by 700 Russian counselors recruited through Camp Counselors USA in their orientation to jobs in American camps. Through additional programs such as Camp American and YMCA it will reach 800 more Russian counselors. The pocket sized dictionary contains translations of critical camp concepts, including those that have no Russian equivalent; like stuff, marshmallow and most important, bug juice, pronounced in Russian as fruktoviy napitok.
|
Intern Coordinator Judy Gregoire steps in to fill the flip-flops of Jack Seubert, (aka Back Wall Jack) who has left the Keys for the cooler climes of the Chesapeake. A 9-season Seacamp veteran, Judy is a marine biology graduate of Boston University from Chicopee, Massachusetts. As a year-round instructor, Judy served as mentor for new instructors, leader for teachers workshops, and joined the ICOP roster when needed. As intern coordinator she guides, cajoles, encourages, and trains ten NHMI interns. (Her less publicized motivational roles include Secret Santa and its Easter version, Secret Bunny). |
|
