6,000 Students to Participate in Delta Discovery Voyages

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:          September 16, 2008                                                                                        

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION:          Patty Friesen, CCWD, 925-688-8194; Spoogmai Habibi, MDUSD, 925-682-8000 x4041; Linda Brewer, DDSD, 925-756-1945; Michael Scahill, Central San, 925-228-9500; Dave Contreras, MVSD, 925-228-5635; Jeanne Borland Mann, MSI, 650-364-0416, x15                                                                                               

 

EDITORS’/PRODUCERS’ ADVISORY:                                                       

Reporters/Photographers/TV: Invited to accompany students

Photo op: All voyages; Fifth-grade students conducting science experiments aboard research vessel in Delta. On Friday, September 19 students from Marina Vista Elementary, will be walking from their newly opened school in downtown Pittsburg to the Pittsburg Marina for their scheduled voyages.                                  

                               

Community Investment Expands

Delta Discovery Voyages for Area Students

Trips scheduled Sept 17-26, 2008 and Jan 5-Feb 2, 2009

 

Antioch and Pittsburg – This year more than 6,000 area fifth-grade students will study the Delta ecosystem and water quality aboard the Research Vessel (RV) Robert G. Brownlee, in what has become a regional success story of partnering between agencies, businesses, and education.

 

In 2003, Mt. Diablo Unified School District (MDUSD), in partnership with Contra Costa Water District (CCWD), contracted with the Marine Science Institute (MSI) in Redwood City to bring the RV Brownlee to Antioch to provide a shipboard science program. The RV Brownlee is a 90-foot vessel built in 1998 specifically to provide a safe and stable floating laboratory for environmental study. The program quickly expanded to a regional partnership benefiting students throughout central and eastern Contra Costa County. Sponsorship from MDUSD, CCWD, Delta Diablo Sanitation District (DDSD), Central Contra Costa Sanitary District (Central San), Mt. View Sanitary District, Dow Chemical Company, and the Lesher Foundation has allowed the program to grow from 48 voyages and 3,000 students in 2003, to this year’s scheduled 92 voyages with more than 6,000 students from local public and private schools.

 

Voyages will depart twice a day for a week and a half in September and then again for eight weeks in early 2009. Voyages on September 17-19 will be departing from the newly renovated Pittsburg Marina. The remainder of the voyages will depart from the Antioch Yacht Harbor. Students will spend the three-and-a-half hour Delta exploration using scientific and shipboard tools to delve through mud samples, examine plankton, trawl for fish, conduct salinity studies, and observe the wetland ecology. The program offers students the chance to enjoy the natural vitality of the Delta while learning how it relates to their daily lives. For many students it is their first experience embarking on any kind of boat.

 

The RV Brownlee will be docked at the Pittsburg Marina September 17-19 and at the Antioch Harbor September 22-26 and January 5-February 27. The media is invited to go out on a voyage with a class. Individuals and organizations interested in adding their financial support to the Delta Discovery Voyage Program are also encouraged to go out on one of the explorations. Please call Marianne Hook, CCWD, (925) 688-8307 to arrange.

 

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