A $25,000 San Diego Foundation grant is sending hundreds of National City fourth graders to the Living Coast Discovery Center to learn about sea turtles and protecting the environment.
The grant connects National City fourth graders at all 10 National City public schools to the Living Coast Discovery Center’s Ocean Connectors Sea Turtle Discovery program where students learn first hand how to build a connection with the local environment.
As part of the program, students will receive classroom lessons focused on green sea turtles and also get to go on field trips to the Living Coast Discovery Center for a more interactive learning and hands-on experience.
Through a similar grant last year, about 737 National City fourth graders were able to benefit from the program. Ocean Connectors executive director Frances Kinney said she expects about 750 fourth graders to participate this year.
Because of the grant the program is offered at no cost, which relieves the financial burden for some families needing to send their child to the center for educational purposes.
“Surprisingly a lot of the kids have never been to the Living Coast Discovery Center before,” Kinney said. “Some of them don’t know the center is there and some of them don’t have the financial resources to go, so Ocean Connectors helps bridge that gap. And get local kids out to the Living Coast so that they can learn about their environment first hand.”
A standard children’s admission ticket costs $11 but Kinney said the price can add up for a family with multiple children.
San Diego Foundation reported that many low-income, ethnically diverse communities have limited access to parks and open spaces.
The foundation’s Opening the Outdoors program closes the gap by providing children and families in ethically diverse, low-income communities with equitable access to nature.
The foundation’s $25,000 Opening the Doors grant helps bring kids to the Living Coast Discovery Center and also expands the Ocean Connectors program.
“Their funding will directly impact the lives of local children and allow them to experience things that otherwise wouldn’t be possible,” Kinney said.
Through Ocean Connectors, students learn about stewardships such as using reusable material, cutting down on single-use plastic, waste management and recycling to protect sea turtles and the environment.
Kinney said these are important lessons to learn because sea turtles are known to consume plastic and eat things like plastic lids or accidentally ingest plastic bags thinking they are pray
“We sort of use sea turtles as a way to show kids that we need to be making less trash and trying to really clean up our communities so that there is less pollution in the ocean,” Kinney said. “Most kids have never seen a sea turtle before. They like it. “
She said the grant is only applied to National City fourth grade students because 99 percent of them are eligible for free lunch at school, an indicator that National City is a low-income community where children do not have access to resources that other children do in the county.
“We want to build skills among these children so that they can grow up to protect their environment but also to pursue careers in marine, science and conservation, and also in the water front areas so that they can take their passion for the environment and turn it in to a successful career that lasts a life time.”
