Over four dozen Belize City kids were taken to Spanish Lookout today for a day of excitement and education. Many of these children have never even left Belize City so the police department treated them to a field trip in one of the most productive areas in Belize City. They were exposed to cheese, ice cream, eggs, chicken and beef production as well as the harvesting of grains and feed.
It was a packed day and Courtney Menzies joined them for the first half. Here is that story:
52 kids took a break from city life today to find out where the cheese on their pizza and the milk in their cereal comes from.
The children were a long way from home - all the way in Spanish Lookout, where they toured some of the different establishments, such as Quality Poultry Products and Western Dairies.
They were then treated to ice cream, lunch, and played games before being whisked off to the afternoon's exciting activities.
It was a day of adventures for the kids, and according to the organizer, ACP Howell Gillett, it also serves as a crime prevention method.
ACP Howell Gillett - OC, Eastern Division
"We want to give kids options, we want to show them that there's another way to life than what they might have been seeing in the areas that they live, so we wanted to give them an option or more to see the countryside and production, life in a different way so maybe that would help them in the way that they think and realise that there's better way to life than some of the crime areas that we're seeing in our jurisdiction. The kids are school students but they are from different areas across the city but of course they're exposed to crime on a, I can't say on what basis, but I know if not by the news, in their environment that they live so we wanted to show them that there's another way or there are more options than what they've seen or heard of in their environment or on the daily news. They saw ice cream production, eggs, milk, this afternoon they will be horse riding and cattle roping, so it's something many of them have not seen and we're so happy that we could give those young people a chance to see another way or another side of life in the countryside especially in a productive area like Spanish Lookout."
But it wasn't just the police department - ACP Gillett said that it was a community effort to get the kids to Spanish Lookout - from the bus to the tours and the meals. But he says the parents are eager for the next field trip.
ACP Howell Gillett
"They were very willing, as a matter of fact, they want us to bring another set of kids to Spanish Lookout and we will because we have the great support from the community and I want to be very grateful for the Spanish Lookout community, first of all, to Leo Batty for providing the bus, Mr Joe Meiner of Woodstop for providing fuel for the bus and all the other donors for this trip so it was very easy for us to take these almost 60 kids and we want to expose more kids to this type of life. There were many more kids that the parents wanted them to come, there are parents who come and visit with me at my office asking if we can't take their kids on some of the trips but we are only allowed, based on our budget, to take a certain amount but we will take more kids, it is in our interest, yes we want to fight crime now by a suppressive nature, we want to use our operational capabilities to suppress crime and immediately, but we also want to suppress crime in the future and that's why a trip like today was so important to us to have these kids see another way to life."
The kids are from various areas in the city - Jungle, Mayflower, PIV, West Landivar, and more, and were chosen by the community policing officers.
Some of the children were also taken to a solar farm in the area.
