This year, again with the backing of the Rotary Club of Grand Cayman, 68 years old veteran fund-raiser and marathon runner Derek Haines will be running 3 marathons and climbing 2 volcanoes with the hope of raising CI$50K for the CCMI.  The CCMI has developed a pilot project that will transform how we teach children about the ocean.

Reefs Go Live will use the Virtual Live Experiences (VLEs) method in connecting students and the general public to real-time Coral Reef activity, in an informal science setting. Teachers based in Little Cayman will use high-tech face masks and streaming equipment to deliver live lessons from under the water and CCMI’s labs directly to classrooms in Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and, hopefully further afield. Connecting humans to the ocean remains one of the most important and relevant conservation challenges today. Getting young students into to the ocean to explore, learn and have a greater affinity with the coral reef ecosystem, in a teacher friendly environment can be costly and hard to manage (on a regular basis).

There will hopefully be an added bonus of educational tourism resulting from the project.

Derek’s first marathon is on the 30th April at Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, and is billed as one of the top 10 challenging marathons in the world. In June he will climb the volcanoes Agua (12,336 feet) and Acatenango (13,044 feet) that are to the south of Antigua, Guatemala, and then back to running with the San Francisco marathon on 23rd July and the Cayman marathon on the 3rd December.

Rotarian, Batman and Iron Man Chris Bailey has jumped in again and will assist in this fund raiser by competing in the Panama full Iron Man in October.

As always the costs of the above will be self-funded with no administrative costs. Every dollar collected will go to the charity.

Derek wishes to thank all of those who have given their very generous support towards his fund-raisers over the years; including the ‘Have a Heart’ appeal in 2016 that has now helped to bring over 180 children from around the world for life saving/changing surgery at Health City.

Rotary Grand Cayman is the first service club in Grand Cayman and received its charter in January 1966. It has almost 100 members and meets at the Westin Hotel on Thursday lunchtimes.

IMAGE: (submitted)