N E W S * R E L E A S E

Contact: Mark Lacy (713) 521-3686 mark@houstonculture.org www.houstonculture.org/media February 16, 2005

Camp Dos Cabezas Pilot Program in May Will Offer
Houston At-risk Children the Experience of a Lifetime

WHAT	General Interest Meeting for Camp Dos Cabezas
WHEN	Saturday, February 26, 2005, 4:30pm
WHERE	Eleanor K. Freed Montrose Branch Houston Public Library 4100 Montrose Blvd at Colquitt

Camp Dos Cabezas is an educational youth camp organized by the Houston Institute for Culture. It will offer Houston at-risk children the experience of a lifetime to help them achieve success in their lives.

The selection process is underway and in three months a group of Houston children and their volunteer mentors will travel to Cochise County to explore the Chiricahua Mountains, the "Land of Standing Up Rocks", and develop interests and research skills in fifteen national and state parks in historic southern Arizona.

The children will hike through the dynamic landscape of towering spires and learn about geology, archaeology and cultural history. The campers will begin their adventure by surveying the mountain formations known as "Islands in the Sky", and the surrounding grassland seas from the fire lookout on top of Sugarloaf Mountain. By the sixth day they will plan and accomplish a full day hike through the "Heart of Rocks". During the week, the children will explore and learn how to: conduct field work and ask experts at museums for information; use historic newspaper articles for research; try on Spanish armor and meet a Spanish exploration party on the Anza Trail; learn about the lifeways of Native Americans, Buffalo Soldiers, Chinese and Serbian miners, and Western pioneers; and, visit an eighteenth century Spanish Baroque mission on the Tohono O'odham reservation.

The camp is operated in such a way that organizations and small businesses can have the same impact as large ones, and ordinary people can be involved just by volunteering their time to help children. Students from the University of Houston College of Education, as well as other area colleges, will benefit from this unique opportunity as well. The mutual benefits will extend to the community and public parks in many ways.

We will give a presentation on Saturday, February 26, 2005 for anyone who is interested in being a volunteer or education partner for the camp. This is a great opportunity for media to get oriented about this program as well. The pilot program will take place May 28 - June 4, 2005, and expand in following years to benefit increased numbers of children and to create further opportunities for the participants.

A small amount of time and resources will help some of Houston's most at-risk children become leaders in their communities. Support is needed from the following groups:

VOLUNTEERS - Get involved to help Houston children
EDUCATORS - Advocate for deserving children in the selection process
SPONSORS - Find out how to provide scholarships to at-risk children
MEDIA ­ Help raise awareness of this tremendous effort

Get more information about Camp Dos Cabezas:
http://www.houstonculture.org/camp

Use the following links to learn more about the subjects, museums and parks the children will enjoy while they develop interests in education and their futures on their great adventure in the "Land of Standing Up Rocks":
http://houstonculture.org/camp/campmap.html
http://houstonculture.org/camp/topics.html
http://houstonculture.org/vc/azmextime.html


Contact information:

email: info@houstonculture.org
phone: 713-521-3686
online: www.houstonculture.org/meeting.



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