Shumla Awarded Grants

By Bill Sontag
bill.sontag@delrionewsherald.com
Staff Writer, Del Rio News-Herald

Reprinted with permission of the Del Rio News-Herald
Published May 29, 2005

Describing Shumla School as an experiential institution sited in a limestone bowl filled with desert scrub about 15 miles north of Comstock, though true, is hardly descriptive at all.

The non-profit school founded and managed by
Dr. Carolyn Boyd, lives, more accurately, in the indelible changes in how children perceive the world around them. And Boyd continues her quest to ensure that the results she, her staff and the school's volunteers have documented to date continue.

The school received gratifying news last week, with the arrival Thursday of a check for $50,000 from the Brown Foundation of Houston. Only a week before, Shumla School celebrated another grant of $30,000 from the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department.

Together the grants make a mighty contribution toward Boyd's intermediate goal of $100,000 for Pecos River Kids Day Camps and Shumla Adventures in the autumn of 2005 and the spring of 2006.

And though funding will secure some equipment needed beyond those timeframes, Boyd is already looking beyond the coming school year for continuing support.

And Cauthorn has joined the pursuit. His corporation owns The Bank and Trust, and together the companies have donated $12,000 for previous and future program efforts.

"I'm planning to help Carolyn on an annual basis. I want to take some folks out there to see it first-hand so we can figure out as many ways as possible to save our heritage along the Pecos River," said Cauthorn Wednesday.

With the recent grants, Boyd is now focused on specially designed programs for fifth grade "at risk" girls in Eagle Pass and Del Rio schools. Her intention is to provide several mentors who are all Hispanic, female scientists to 15 girls for a few days of learning, fun and new experiences.

The first Shumla Adventures camp for the girls will include catching fish in the Devils River, then dissecting them to learn what makes them tick, and finally preparing, cooking and eating their catch. The girls will overnight in a ranch bunkhouse loaned by a local rancher who remains anonymous.

"But they said they couldn't think of any way they'd rather have their land and bunkhouse used than for a program like this," Boyd said Friday.

A glance at Boyd's former wish list, now shopping list of items the grants will secure gives a hint of what's in store for "Shumla Adventures Life Sciences" participants.

Sleeping bags, fishing poles, first aid kits, ball caps, daypacks, and two-way radios are a few of the outdoor equipment tools the girls will use.

Educational kits will contain three different kinds of microscopes, safety goggles, disposable cameras, binoculars and telescopes, among other tools. In addition, the girls will have plant and animal identification guides, notebooks, and craft items provided.

Rounding out the inventory are 600 paintbrushes, 2,000 pencils, and 2,000 Shumla Survivor pins.

"And we'll make a trip to Eagle Pass, well before they come up here, to meet the girls and their teachers, and go on a shopping trip to buy hiking boots for all of them, which they will keep after the adventure," Boyd said.

The first groups are coming from Seco Mines and Benevides Heights Elementary Schools in Eagle Pass, "because they jumped on this opportunity so fast," Boyd said, adding that she will do the same programs for Del Rio girls, and boys (with male mentors, of course) in both cities.

Seco Mines Principal Selina Jimenez wrote to Boyd in February: "My girls need more female role-models in their lives, and together we can provide them with a rewarding program in order to develop their self-image and vision of what society has to offer them."

Moreover, as with all the Shumla School programs, Boyd wants to continue the camps in perpetuity. "I want them to have mentors that are living examples showing them that anything is possible," Boyd said.

The initial "Life Science" themes will be eventually be alternated with "Earth Science" curricula, including topics such as geography, geology, hydrology and astronomy.

The increasingly popular day camps, in which entire classes are bused to Shumla School for about five hours of hands-on exposure to ancient lifeways, have wrapped up for the 2004–2005 school year.

The last camp, hosting all fourth and fifth grade classes from Lamar Elementary School in Del Rio, was facilitated by the support of Principal Jennie Owens and teacher contacts Juanita Mejia and Frances Fierro.

Boyd encourages teachers to contact her immediately to reserve space for day camps in the 2005–2006 school year. "We'll have nine in the fall, and nine more camps in the spring," Boyd said, "and the spaces will fill up really fast." She and her staff may be contacted by calling the Comstock office, 432-292-4848.

Boyd's and Cauthorn's thrusts now are directed toward completion of fundraising for the short-range goal of $100,000, but placing urgent emphasis on continuing program sponsorships and enlarging the school's cadre of volunteers.

"For our volunteers, we'll do all the training needed," Boyd said. "No technical skills are necessary, just willingness to help as guides of the 'clans' the classes are divided into when they're here for the day camps, for example."

"We need to get a cycle of assistance from community sources going to maintain the initiative," Boyd said. Though she has been successful in getting help from large city endowments and foundations, Boyd knows that local involvement is critical for the long run.

"It's really hard to get support from outside Val Verde County," she said. On the significance of local and regional benefactors, Cauthorn said, "We want them to know how important their role is."