Thirteen students, along with faculty and parent chaperones, returned from a week-long community service trip on Caye Caulker, an island off the coast of Belize. This is the second time Milton students have visited the Ocean Academy on Caye Caulker to help rebuild the island’s only high school and tutor students from the area.
In this photo, Abisayo Animashaun (III), Cassandra Rice (III), James Little (III) and Samantha Peponakis (III) complete the netting on a greenhouse structure that the group designed and constructed for the Academy.
“Students at the school will use the greenhouse to grow herbs and plants that they can sell to help cover their tuition costs,” says community service director, Andrea Geyling.
The group also labeled, catalogued and sorted 900 donated books onto shelves built and installed by the students; repaired dozens of broken chairs and desks to be used in the classrooms; cleared trash washed up on the coast of a mangrove restoration reserve; and joined Ocean Academy students in extracurricular activities, including a guided kayak trip with a local naturalist to learn about the endangered mangrove ecosystem.
Before boarding the plane back to New England, students were rewarded with a day-long snorkeling excursion, swimming with nurse sharks, rays, sea turtles and many of the island’s protected fish species.
