St. Peters Academy students are getting set to blast off to space camp

BENOIT'S COVE - A group of 15 students from St. Peter's Academy in Benoit's Cove are getting ready to embark on an out of this world experience.

Grade 6 teacher Cherry Harbin will be taking 11 of her Grade 6 students and four Grade 7 students to the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, next year.
The group will attend a three-day Pathfinder camp in late April.

Harbin has attended two camps for teachers at the centre. Two summers ago, she attended a one-week camp as part of the centre's scholarship program. There were 200 teachers from all over the world in the program. This past summer, she returned to take part in a second two-week advanced academy. This time she was one of 37 from the original 200 selected to attend.

Harbin says the opportunity to go to the space camp was something she initially got involved with because of what it could mean for her teaching.

The application process included showing camp organizers they types of adversities you have in teaching math and science in your area.

"So of course being here in this rural community and even on the west coast of Newfoundland, there's not a whole lot where you can actually go outside your classroom and teach science and math. So I felt being able to have that opportunity and bring those types of things back to the class would have been a perfect chance.

"As a teacher that's my job, to make sure that every student that I teach gets every opportunity to grow and to learn and to experience everything in the curriculum.
Of course for me it means a lot more than just sitting inside the classroom and going through books."

It was because of her own experience that she decided to look into giving her students the same opportunity.

"This will be the ultimate," says Harbin who admits to being a bit envious of her students.
"Because the sky is the limit for what they're able to do."

The Pathfinder camp will include rocket making and simulated space missions, along with astronaut training and teamwork activities.

All of these are things the students are looking forward to.

"It's a once in a lifetime chance to go," says Grade 6 student Jamie Pennell.

Pennell says Harbin has showed them some of the types of missions they might be working on and for her that has made the trip "more exciting".

Pennell enjoys studying math and science but lately science has become more interesting.

"Because it has so much to do with our Alabama trip."

This 11-year-old would like to become a clothing designer and laughs when it's suggested she could design the next space suit.

After looking at pictures Harbin took at the camps she attended Pennell says "I think we're going to have a really good time."

Fellow Grade 6 student Nicholas O'Connell, 11, also can't wait to go to the camp.

"I like stuff about space."

He's especially looking forward to the missions the students will work on and to getting his very own flight suit, much like the one belonging to Harbin that hangs in classroom along with space shuttles, rockets and pictures of space.

Twelve-year-old Mark Connolly heard all about the space camp when he was in Harbin's class last year, so he didn't hesitate to sign on for the trip.

"I really like space and everything," says the Grade 7 student, "so I really wanted to go."
Connolly is looking forward to learning more about space and going to the rocket museum.

Fundraising

With the trip approved and the group selected, Harbin says the "biggest challenge" now is the fundraising.

Because she doesn't want the students to be put in a position where they might have to say 'I can't go', Harbin has put together a plan to raise some money to help cover the cost of the airfare to Alabama.

She says that's the biggest expense with the cost of tickets being close to $1,200 each.
"That's my goal," she says "to minimize the amount the parents have to pay."

The group has already held a fish cake sale and has a scratch card fundraiser coming up.

She says the parents of the students in the group have also come onboard and are planning to hold a few dances.

The kids are also recycling on their own to raise the money to pay their own camp fees.
Harbin has also sent out letters to number of businesses in the Benoit's Cove area and in Corner Brook.

The first to respond was SunLife Financial in Corner Brook with a $500 donation.
Glen Acreman, sales manager with SunLife, says they had no hesitation when it came to supporting the group.

"This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for these students and we encourage all businesses both local and national to certainly consider doing the same."

Harbin says she is just trying to get people to realize how important of an opportunity this is for the kids.

"If I can spark their interest in science and math, who knows what that could bring for their future.

"I could have a few rocket scientists or astronauts in amongst our midst," she says "and you know what that's not something that is hard to believe because NASA is looking for people all the time and it's not just astronauts, there's so many different jobs in science and math that are connected to the NASA program.

"Who knows," she says.

Take Connolly for instance. He says he'd like to one day work in the space field on the Canadarm.