Hustling For "The Hustle"

Gearing up for the start of one of the stations.

The last day of session 1 was on Thursday, marking the end of a great first half of the summer. It was an eventful day with "The Hustle" and the Talent Show both taking place. The last day of the sessino was also an emotional day for both campers and staff, these people weren't going to see each other for another year and they were very sad.

   "The Hustle" is a massive relay race where Campers are put into teams based on their lighthouse (a lighthouse is a large group of about 100 campers). The Campers were pumped up for "The Hustle" and were drenched in their lighthouse colors. With Yellow hair, green bandanas, and purple necklaces, all the campers were showing their team spirit. Once "The Hustle" started everyone camper went 110% to make sure their team won. Knowing this was the last day of camp these campers wanted to make a lasting impression, and literally put their blood, sweat, and tears into the relay. From the rock climbing station, the pie eating station, and the paddle boarding station, the relay was a lot of fun for everyone watching and involved.

Pie eating contest!

 The Talent Show was just as fun and entertaining, and I was really surprised by the amount of talent the young campers had. One of the campers sang the Song "All of Me", another danced to the song "Mangolia", and one of the LIT's shared his poem. All of the campers were cheering on their friends and enjoying these amazing performances, which was a lot fun for us to watch.
   I am gonna miss the Campers from Session 1, but I am excited for the second half of the summer.

Until Next Time, Abel Yohannes

Squeaky Clean Environment

A picture of the moon jelly I spotted
in the channel!

Friday's at the museum are great days to work on your fishing skills and becoming patient. This Friday was a long day at the Children's Museum, filled with fishing and the touch tank filled with green crabs. We had many young children from the ages 7 years and under excited to fish with us on the dock. Every now and then we had them pulling up crabs and adding to our touch tank. They got super creative with me and added beautiful art on the walkway. As we fished I spotted a moon jelly in the water, it was super small and didn't do much but the sight of it was enough to get the kids bubbling.

They also took notice of its small amount of movement, and also oil in the water which lead to me explain to them how important it is to throw away our trash, recycle, and not litter into the harbor.

Our colorful decorations
on the Children's Museum
pier!

Adding to that, this Monday at Community Boating on the Charles we helped clean up trash around the area. Much like our harbor, it has been dramatically changed to help better the environment and provide activities to young children and adults alike to participate in on the river. The river used to be heavily polluted due to dumping in the Charles from the growing city around it. We assisted our site partner, Molly, with her environmental class to test the pH of the water, salt content, visibility and more. Then we walked along the river searching for trash and cleaning it up. On the way we spotted a baby turtle, some fish, and ducks swimming happily in the river. 

All Summer 17

-Khar

Ocean Critters

A squirting sea squirt!

In addition to our lovely catch of crabs, one of the children fishing on the dock with us caught a tunicate! We don't see those very often so a rush of happiness passed through me as I showed them what it can do. They giggled as I squeezed it and the tunicate sprinkled water onto them.

Our first week at Georges Island was a blast, each day we caught

Jonah & Green crabs in our
touch tank.

endless amounts of green crabs. We did have a little diversity, though, and

caught a Jonah crab in our crab trap! It was huge compared to the

tiny green crabs we had. All the kids that came over to fish were

intrigued by it and asked all these awesome questions such

as,"What kind of crabs are these?", "Is it a boy or a girl?", and I

enjoyed teaching them all the knowledge I myself have learned while working at Save the Harbor.

In fact I even used a field guide book with the kids to identify the Jonah crab we had caught.

Very similar looking to the Red Rock Crab, the guide book

indicated that the crab was a Jonah crab due to the black tips on

their legs and claws, whereas a Red Rock crab only has

black tips on its claws.

Petting crabs

Here's to many more adventures!

-Khar