Private Groups, Individuals Support CIR School Programs
Since 2004, CIR has taken 2,137 school children on service school trips to the Channel Islands. These kids were accompanied by 368 adult chaperones, teachers and parents. The program targets schools in low income areas and provides bus and boat transportation, a pre-trip presentation in the classroom, plus CIR personnel to lead the trips and to lead the volunteer work. Each trip, serving about 30 kids, costs about $2,500.
Funding for school science curricula shrinks every year, and the expense of outdoor learning means these curricula suffer first. CIR provides one of the few outdoor experiences allowing students to actively engage in restoration work within natural habitat. They see the results of their work year after year and their learning endures. Most of the kids had never been on a boat, or seen marine mammals or even visited a National Park, and they do all of these things on our school trips.
CIR received support from state and federal agencies for most of our school trips. Now with tight budgets government funding sources are becoming harder to find. So, CIR has turned to our corporate partners, individuals and others to support our school program.
The software company Citrix Online recently provided funding to take a class of 30 kids on a trip as did the Men’s Garden Club of Santa Barbara. We have also received generous donations from individuals for the program.
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| Forth Graders from Sheridan Way Elementary School on Anacapa Island |
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