Theresa Green loves children. In fact she works closely with children throughout the school year and every summer in a program called Kaledescope—an after school and summer program for school children across the county.

Green is the site coordinator for James Island where she is in charge of planning a summer camp called Camp Fundamentals.

The children in this camp come from very diverse backgrounds. The summer camps offer something for everyone.

To make that happen, however, Green relies on the kindness of the public. As part of the program outlined for each day, Green coordinates with local business professionals and invites them to come in as guest speakers.

Most recently, Mount Pleasant Town Councilman Joe Bustos was invited to speak to children ranging in ages 4-12.

Bustos is a local pilot with Coastal Aviation Inc. based out of Mount Pleasant Regional Airport. The company offers flight training, charters and rentals.

The theme of this year’s camp was Transportation exploration. Since Bustos is an instructor and pilot for the company, Green saw him as a great fit.

The theme covered land, air, sea and space. “Joe was able to speak to the children on their level of understanding and he spoke about being a pilot and about crosswinds and the technical aspects of an airplane and flying,” Green said. “But most importantly he spoke about the importance of a good education. It’s people like Joe who care and want to make a difference in the life of a child.”

Bustos noted the older children had lots of questions, of course, but one child in the 4-5 year old group was quite familiar with airplanes and flying.

Bustos used a white board to draw out diagrams of various flight patterns and instruments on the airplanes that he flies. He also brought in aviation magazines to help describe the fundamentals of flight.

“The most rewarding part to me was the thank you notes I received after my visit,” Bustos said. “Some had plane cut outs and a lot of effort was put into them. They were really heart felt. That’s the type of thing you want to keep forever and it certainly inspires me to continue to give back to the community like this.”

Green requires the campers to create thank you notes for each speaker as a way to instill good manners and values in the children.

“We encourage the campers to thank our speakers because they give generously of their time,” she said. “And, if one person can inspire these kids in some way, we’ve been successful. You never know you  have a budding pilot in the room until you invite someone like Joe to come and speak. And it’s like that with many of our speakers.”

The camp is also designed to engage the children in meaningful ways and provide learning experiences in addition to fun.

“The parents are grateful because they know their children are in a safe structured environment that is  also educational,” Green said.

According to Bustos, children start learning how to fly as young as 12 years old although you must be 17 to get a license.

“But if you get them engaged early they can become very skilled pilots,” he said. “And what I explained to these campers is that math and reading all come into it and that they need a good solid education to go along with any interest they may have.”

Green talked about the importance of speakers sharing their life experiences. “They provide a verbal and hands-on experience for these children. Without people like this to step up to the plate and fulfill a commitment to these kids, it would be difficult to get these children engaged. I can’t thank Joe and all of these people who have had a positive impact on these children,” she said.

(Sully Witte can be reached at editor@moultrienews.com.)

Staff Photo By Sully Witte

Pictured are pilot Joe Bustos with Coastal Aviation and Theresa Green, site coordinator for Kalediescope on James Island. Green presented Bustos with thank you notes made by the campers he spoke to this summer as a guest speaker on aviation.