Marco Island's Hideaway Community Hosts Buddy Day

(www.marconews.com, February 10, 2011)

You may be smarter than a fifth grader, but do you have as much energy as a second grader? At the Hideaway Beach Guadalupe Center Buddy Day on Wednesday, February 9th, over 125 volunteers got to answer that question. Each adult was paired up with a second grader from Immokalee for a day of arts and crafts, beaching, nature exploration and fun, at Hideaway’s picnic grove on the northwest corner of Marco Island.

The kids, second graders at Pinecrest and Highland elementary schools in Immokalee, are “graduates” of the Guadalupe Center’s after-school program, which covers kindergarten, first and second grade, and the field trip is a reward for the kids who made exceptional progress in reading and math skills over the last three years. When the buses rolled up to Hideaway, there were 128 children aboard, and each got matched up with a “big buddy.”  Read more...