Saratoga News

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Photograph by George Sakkestad

Saratoga firefighter Todd Garde shows the City Seekers around the Saratoga firehouse as part of a recreation department program for children.

City Seekers

Saratoga youngsters learn about their city through rec program

By Shannon Burkey

Nine-year-old Natalie Lamier knows the kind of expenses a city such as Saratoga incurs. Eight-year-old Hailey Anderson now knows how to go about getting a job when she is older. She even has a city job application to practice with.

These may be unusual things for average fourth- and fifth-graders to know, but just about any of the children in the new City Seekers camp could tell you the same things.

The camp, offered through the city's recreation department, was the idea of recreation supervisor Adam Henig.

Henig said he came up with the idea after hearing of a similar camp offered in San Francisco and Berkeley that is designed to familiarize children with their urban surroundings while making them aware of all a city has to offer.

With that in mind, Henig came up with the weeklong City Seekers day camp as a way to introduce Saratoga's children to the people and places that make their community unique and to give them an introduction into the inner workings of a city.

"The goal is that they have some idea of how a city works," Henig says. "By the end of the week, they should know things like what a city clerk is and what a planning department does."

So, while many of Saratoga's children spent the lazy days of summer hanging out with friends and vacationing with family, 13 fourth- and fifth-graders took the time to learn about the city they call home. Throughout the week, campers visited Saratoga City Hall, the Saratoga Fire Station, the KSAR TV studio, the Saratoga Retirement Community, Hakone Gardens and San Jose City Hall.

Saratoga resident Debbie Lamier said her daughter, Natalie, made a New Year's resolution to get to know her community after the dress shop Bella Mia opened and she did not know anything about it. Natalie expressed an interest in knowing more about the people in her community. Even though City Seekers came around almost six months after New Year's, Lamier said she felt this was a great opportunity for her daughter.

"The wide diversity of activities and places that they went to was great," Lamier says. "She now has a much better awareness of the city than I do."

While leading the tour of Saratoga City Hall, City Clerk Cathleen Boyer offered campers some interesting facts about their city.

Not only were they excited to learn the date the city was incorporated and that Saratoga has a sister city in Muko, Japan, the City Seekers also met Mayor Norman Kline and learned how the city goes about making its laws and ordinances.

"I think outreach at this age is so important," Boyer says. "If they start young learning about government, maybe as they get older they will want to become involved in things like the youth commission."

Each of the city departments gave the campers an overview of what the responsibilities of their departments are.

"One of the parents told me that her daughter came home and asked her if they had to get their home addition approved by the planning department," Henig says.

In an effort to teach the City Seekers about the diversity of different types of cities, the camp also toured San Jose City Hall.

"There is a huge contrast between our city hall and San Jose's," Henig says. "I think it will be cool for them to see how different cities with different demographics and populations work."

For many of the kids, the more hands-on activities were the highlight of the week. From sitting in a firetruck to hosting and videotaping their own talk show at KSAR studios, the camp combined fun and education.

"My favorite was the television station because we got to operate all the stuff," says Hailey, who had the chance to be a director and a camera operator at KSAR.

"I really liked going inside the fire station," Natalie says. "It was cool seeing what is in their refrigerators and where they all sleep."

Firefighters Todd Garde and Dan Morino, who led the tour of the firehouse, played their part in giving the campers an educational experience as they talked about fire safety in the home and the ways in which the fire department helps to protect the city.

Alicia Zeid said her children have been attending summer camps at the recreation center for years, but this one seemed different and more important than those they have attended in the past.

"I think it is very important for them to see things that are real and the important things that are a part of the community," Zeid says.

"I had been to Hakone Gardens before, but this time I learned that it is the oldest garden like that," says 9-year-old Alia Zeid. Hakone Gardens is the oldest Japanese-style garden in the Western Hemisphere.

Time was set aside for each child to write in a private journal about the experiences they had that day, to help reinforce what they learned.

"Combining the writing with everything else was a good idea. It got them to focus on the things they had done," Alia says. "The camp had such a variety; it is the first time I have seen a camp like that."

Henig calls the camp a success with both parents and campers.

"For a first-time camp that involved a lot of pre-planning and trips, it worked out pretty smooth," Henig says. "Parents are already asking me about next year."