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The main goal is to expose the children to boats and marine science. We find most of these children have never been on a boat in the ocean. It is a great event to stimulate interest in science in general. It complies with the goals of our foundation as being inside two areas of focus in education and economic development.
Rotarians are involved in all phases of this project. First we have cultivated relationships with the school districts to make projects like this possible. Second we will attend all trips, encouraging our new members in particular, to have a first hand look by serving as adult chaperones, and encouraging the children to have fun and learn. Third we have worked with the Sea Base staff to come up with a curriculum that satisfies the school district.
We have attached a memo from the school district that approves our project.
The trip will take place in September or October 2014, certainly will be completed by the end of this year. The exact date cannot be set until school is in session and we have approval for the funds of this project. No funds will be spent until project is approved.
Our club president negotiated a special price and curriculum for each student with the Sea Base facility. The transportation for the students is estimated at $ 5 per student, using the school district bus, and the sea base will charge $ 15 per student for the program. Therefore our total cost is $20 per student. Naturally our club funds come from our various fundraising activities, and from our foundation account which is separate from our club service account. We will also provide healthy snacks for the kids at our club expense, estimated at $ 2 per child.
The school districts prefer to send the kids for a half day, still having their normal lunch at school. This was their preference so that as many kids could be sent on the field trip as possible. This has been a successful ongoing project for many years, but this year we are switching the location to Sea Base - Newport Beach - Boy scout explorer facility. We are sponsoring a field trip for 3 Santa Ana elementary schools. The children will go out on a boat and be exposed to aquatics and marine science. and we will be sending approximately 180 students from 3 different schools and accompanying adults. This year for the same money we will serve three times as many students.
This project is also great because we support Scouting, both financially and by creating awareness for their Sea Base facility. It helps by strengthening an ongoing partnership between Rotary and Scouts. It is also an excellent public image building event for our club and Rotary in general.
In addition we have our local Register reporters who have spoken at our club, who have told us they are willing to report on our projects if we provide good pictures and well written summaries. We also have a new member that has a public relations and advertising background who has promised to help with publicity.
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