My name is Enrique Romero and I want to make the world a better place in a small way. First I am going help my parents with our garden. With my shovel I am going to change the dirt around our garden so that when my parents water, all the water stays on the garden space. Then I am going to slope the dirt so that when it rains the rainwater flows into the garden, not away from it.
Next, I will talk to my mom about planting more native vegetables, the kind that don’t need much water, such as you can get at Native Seed Search. After that, we will plant native flowers and cacti. These don’t need as much water, and they will attract native birds and insects. Finally I will talk to my neighbors about what I am doing and why am I doing it. I will also help them with my shovel and show them how to do it.
The experience that convinced me to do this was when I learned about John Wesley Powell at the Earth Camp. He was the 1st man to explore the Colorado River by going through the Grand Canyon on a boat. He later returned to study the local Native Americans and how they were able to grow good gardens in such a dry area. He found that they did it by channeling the rainwater, and by working together.

The thing that I liked the most about Earth Camp was camping out. The 1st day of the camp we were at the Desert Museum. We took a lot of pictures of the animals when we had free time. Later that day we camped out on land that the Desert Museum owned. We didn’t sleep with any tents. It was cool! Seeing all of the stars in the sky was awesome! It wasn’t cold that night it was actually warm.
    The 2nd time we camped out was on Mt. Lemon. It was cool there too! We played a lot of games. We ate Quesadillas for dinner. Amy allowed student's parents to come with us on the ski lift. The parents could stay until 8:00. After that we went to sleep at 9:00. It was chilly that night but it wasn’t very cold. Tuesday morning was a cold morning. I think it was 50 degrees!
    On Friday were going to do our last camp out on Kit Peak. I am really looking forward to camping out 1 last time with my Friends. It is going to be AWESOME!!!!

    I really liked it when we went to the Phoenix Lander Mission Control. It was the mission to mars. We saw some of the spacecraft that went to mars. They were about 6-8 feet wide and 3-4 feet tall. They let us play with the mineral scooper. It was COOL! We also made our own Mission to Mars and our own slogan.
    We saw some of the future spacecraft that scientists will send to outer space. This was a very exciting experience. I want to go again and look at all of the Spacecraft. I LOVE SPACE!!!!!!

I like Drawing and I do it often. When Jesus came in and taught us how to do artistic drawings. We drew tarantulas, owls, and mountain lions. We all got our hands dirty with oil pastels. Jesus showed us his journal that he drew in daily. He is a very talented artist. He showed us a feather that he drew out of scribbles and lots of more of his artistic drawings. He also drew the Pink Panther.
    I am not a good artist, but I can draw. Drawing is a fun thing to do because you just draw what is on your mind. I like to draw all over my folder and draw EVERYWHERE!! I wish that I could draw like Jesus does, so I am going to start when the camp is over. Earth Camp Is cool and I hope to return next year as a Counselor.

I really LOVED earth camp and want to come again next year. I am really going to miss all of my new friends and all of the counselors. It was COOL learning about the earth and how to save it. This camp is cool and I will recommend it to all students in Arizona. This was the best summer that I ever had and I will hope to have another one just like this or BETTER!! I really don’t have a favorite counselor because all of them were AWESOME! I wish Laurel Clark was here so I could meet her.