Field Trip to the Camden Aquarium

Usually I don’t do much of anything on the weekends, and I like it that way, but this weekend was different.

It started on Friday when we VISTAs were given the choice to chaperone a summer school field trip to the Camden Aquarium in New Jersey or go into the office. Obviously we chose to be chaperones so we arrived at the school early Friday morning to embark on the hour and a half ride to the aquarium. The ride was filled with beautiful scenery like fields and farms and all of the cool things when we rode through Philly so the kids were pretty entertained. In fact, they were almost as entertained with the scenery as they were with my freckles, or polka-dots as they liked to call them.

Finally we arrived at the aquarium and the kids could barely contain their excitement! I was lucky enough to be put with the going-into-first-graders and going-into-fifth-graders, an interesting mix. The school they are from has an 80% poverty rate, measured by the percentage of students who receive free or reduced lunch, so it was nice for the kids to get out of the city and have a new experience! They loved everything! The Camden Aquarium is really cool and very tailored to children. Their favorite part, hands down, was the stingray touch-tank. We could barely get them out of there after half an hour!

While it was a really great trip, lunchtime was a snap back to reality. The school provided pre-packed lunches were an eye-opener. The no-refrigeration necessary packages contained chocolate “milk”, beef and cheese sticks, a bag of chips, and a dessert item. Our kids deserve better than this. We know children living in poverty have very limited access to fresh produce and healthy foods in general, but our government approves these lunches? It’s just not right.

All in all it was a great trip and most of the kids napped on the bus ride back to school. Once we got back to the house we had a little bit of time to get ready before heading to one of the Community School Coordinators’ house. She was kind enough to invite all of the VISTAs over for dinner, and she conveniently lives right around the corner from us! We got to meet her daughters, ages 2 and 3, get to know her better, eat delicious Latin American cuisine, and learn more about our neighborhood. It was a great way to end a great day!