According to Mary Beth Sutton, “Kids can change the world.”
As the executive director of Caribbean SEA and TenneSEA: The Clean Water Project, Sutton puts that theory into action with the organization’s Kids 4 Clean Water Summer Camp. “I think kids can learn anything. They are willing to look at things differently and they don’t have their minds made up on things,” she adds.
At Kids 4 Clean Water Camp, kids will:
Explore local creeksHike trailsConduct water quality testingDiscover hundreds of aquatic speciesUse a microscopeCreate their own naturalist’s guidePlay water gamesCreate water art, and more!
June marks the camp’s fourth anniversary as well as the first time the program is hosting the camp for three different sessions: two at the Mountain Arts Community Center on Signal Mountain and one at Greenway Farm in Hixson.
Through microscopic investigations of ponds and streams, discovering “critters” that crawl on the bottom of a creek rock and snorkeling in South Chickamauga, the 8 to 12 year olds that attend Kids 4 Clean Water are able to experience the watersheds of the Chattanooga area for themselves. “We always get wet; that’s very important,” Sutton laughs. “Unless you experience it, it doesn’t really connect. This is about reconnecting the kids to the water and the outdoors.