About Our Jr. CVB Project
How it all got started
As far as we know our Jr. CVB (Convention & Visitors Bureau) is the only program of its kind in the USA. It all started with a phone call to CVB Director Felicia Fairchild by Douglas Elementary School teacher Wendy Colsen. Ms. Colsen told Ms. Fairchild that each year she and fellow teacher Pam Brady had their 3rd grade students prepare hand drawn visitors guides following a series of field trips into the community. During these field trips students learned about their home town which is a very popular tourist destination. Ms. Colsen asked if the CVB could think of a way to utilize the visitors guides prepared by the children, in any of our tourism promotions or materials.
Several months later Ms. Fairchild contacted Ms. Colsen and presented an outline for the development of a Jr. Convention and Visitor's Bureau involving all 52 fourth grade students at Douglas Elementary School. She explained that upon reviewing the "Kid's Visitors Guides" and the "Kids Taste of Saugatuck Restaurant Reviews" the thought occurred to her that it would be an innovative idea to create a special kids section on the CVB's website, where our local children could tell kids everywhere why Saugatuck-Douglas is a great place to visit. The special website would promote our tourist destination from a child's point of view - kids telling other kids what to Click here to see and do while visiting our town.
Ms. Fairchild, Ms. Colsen and Ms. Brady all agreed that there could be very important educational components to this project. By establishing a Jr. Convention and Visitors Bureau the children could learn about the following life skills:
- Forming an organization
- The election process and leadership skills
- How to write and deliver a campaign speech
- Basic parliamentary procedures
- How to take minutes and report on meetings
- Group decision making and team work
- How to research and report on a subject
- Undertaking a project or assignment
- Creating a website
- Web safety for children
- Descriptive sentences and salesmanship
- Promoting their community through tourism
- Learning why tourism is important to our town
The idea was presented to the students who were extremely enthusiastic. A Jr. CVB Board of Directors was elected by the students through the democratic process. The Jr. CVB Board of Directors helped expedite the project and worked directly with Ms. Fairchild. They acted as liaison between their classmates and the actual Board of Directors of the Saugatuck-Douglas Convention and Visitors Bureau.
As part of their internet safety lessons the children selected fictitious internet names for their biographies and web assignments. It was also determined for ascetic purposed spelling and major grammatical errors would be corrected wherever typewritten text appeared; but that student's handwritten text would not be altered. Ms. Fairchild provided her own photography to illustrate the website except where it otherwise indicated that the photos were taken by a student as part of his/her assignment or where photos were provided by a business.
We would like to thank Andrew Milauckas, the first youth representative to be appointed to Saugatuck-Douglas Convention and Visitors Bureau Board of Directors and his friends for their assistance. Finally, we would like to thank Erick Eckardt our webmaster for his patience in helping us launch this project.
The "Kids Zone" is the result of an outstanding collaborative effort between the Saugatuck-Douglas Convention and Visitors Bureau, Douglas Elementary School teachers Wendy Colsen and Pam Brady and all 52 fourth grade students who worked so hard to create this web site.
Last Updated: May 23, 2005. |
