Pawling Teenager Volunteers in Caribbean West Indies
Feb. 9, 2015 – Bozeman, Montana – During the 2014 summer Robert Phillips, a Pawling Teenager, spent part of summer vacation in the British Virgin Islands with VISIONS Service Adventures, an international community service based adventure travel program.
Phillips was part of a group of students who accomplished community service while living in a small neighborhood on Tortola, the largest of the BVIs. The volunteers worked on improvements for the local Humane Society facilities, worked with a local organic gardener, and worked on a painting project for a home for the elderly.
The trip wasn’t all work for Phillips and his peers. They learned firsthand about island culture during work projects and social visits with community members. After work and on weekends, they swam and snorkeled at the many beaches, explored town, and visited a neighboring island.
“Service in the cross-cultural context allows teens the opportunity to make a difference and, just as important, know the people whose lives they are impacting in personal, mutually respectful ways,” says Katherine Dayton, VISIONS Executive Director. “We give students tangible ways to be challenged through ambitious service work, thereby developing resilience and self-confidence, and realizing their potential in this world.”
VISIONS operates high school volunteer travel programs in Alaska, the British Virgin Islands, Cambodia, Mississippi, Montana Blackfeet, Montana Northern Cheyenne, Myanmar (Burma), Dominican Republic, Ecuador & Galapagos, Nicaragua, Peru, Guadalupe, and middle school programs, including the Island Passage in the British Virgin Islands and Northern Passage in Montana’s Northern Cheyenne Indian reservation.
“Each of our program locations is unique,” said Dayton, “but all provide primary ingredients of community service, cultural immersion, adventure and opportunities to explore places off the tourist track.”
For more information about VISIONS, check out www.visionsserviceadventures.com, or contact Corinne Garcia at 406-272-0221 or Corinne@visionsserviceadventures.com.
