PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Rebecca Hooper
Communications and Program Manager
802-359-5001, x231
rhooper@vinsweb.org

Local Businesses Partner with VINS to Send Kids to Nature Camp

Quechee, VT - July 6, 2007 – The Vermont Institute of Natural Science (VINS) has received generous sponsorship gifts from Lake Sunapee Bank, Farrow Financial Investment Company, Simon Pearce, and Mascoma Bank to help send area children to VINS Nature Day Camps this summer. “Camperships” underwritten by the gifts will allow eligible children to attend camps at the VINS Nature Center in Quechee, Vermont, and at Storrs Pond in Hanover, New Hampshire.

VINS will work with The Haven, The Listen Center, David's House, The Boys and Girls Club, and other area service organizations to identify children who would most benefit from a week of nature day camp with their peers. Children will be selected by these organizations to attend camp at one of the VINS sites.

“We feel it is important that as many children as possible have the opportunity to attend camp this summer, regardless of family means,” said VINS President John Dolan. “Fun summer learning experiences are good for the campers and for their communities,” he added.

VINS Nature Day Camps for kids in preschool through Grade 6 are scheduled weekly through the summer and emphasize hands-on outdoor learning. The camps give children a chance to learn about nature through outside exploration and investigation right in their own communities. Campers' days are filled with activities, crafts, and games centered on the discovery of butterflies, plants, animals, mushrooms, and other local flora and fauna, as well as with good old-fashioned outdoor play.

For more than 30 years, VINS has nurtured children's interest in wildlife and the environment through both school-based environmental education programs and summer and holiday camps. By participating in VINS' programs, children of all ages learn the value and importance of being good stewards of the natural world.

Founded in 1972, the Vermont Institute of Natural Science (VINS) is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization headquartered in Quechee, Vermont. VINS' mission is to protect our natural heritage through education and research that engages individuals and communities in active care of the environment.

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