“I got a fossil, a big one,” he said excitedly about his discovery during the beach exploration portion of the Guadalupe Center’s 26th annual Buddy Day, held recently at Hideaway Beach.
The event pairs second grade students from Immokalee’s four elementary schools to Marco where these “little buddies” are paired with “big buddies,” in the person of adult volunteers from Hideaway, Verona Walk and Fiddlers Creek for a day of fun and learning.
Guadalupe Center is an Immokaleebased nonprofit dedicated to using education to end the cycle of poverty for the community’s low-income children. Its programs include early childhood education for pre-schoolers, after-school tutoring for elementary students, summertime enrichment, and a college preparatory tutor corps that provides mentorship and work experience for high school students.
Buddy Day interactive activities included birding, nature studies, games led by staff from the Greater Marco Family YMCA and healthy snacks, along with golf cart rides. Each youth also received a book and a stuffed animal. Educational stations were hosted by staff from Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve and rangers from Big Cypress National Preserve.
The claw of a small crab was among the discoveries of these girls at Hideaway Beach during Buddy Day.
“Our purpose, No. 1, is to give these kids a fun day at the beach because a lot of them have never even seen the Gulf of Mexico,” said Ryan. “The second is because we want to involve the community in doing something good for the kids of Immokalee. Hideaway has been at the epicenter of that for many, many years.”
Brandon was also enthralled with the birding program, which required the youngsters to walk a trail with their big buddy, stopping at stations where there were pictures of several of the region’s native birds. The children would jot down their avian creature’s characteristics and then use those clues to try and correctly identify them. They were also provided with cardboard, temporary binoculars to use for birding at home.

Tom and Linda Sands, left, Genesis Galvan, Abigail Garcia, Dee Herbst and Alma Perez, refresh themselves and snacks and drinks.
“The birding experience was great,” he said. “I learned about how the birds act and I learned about the birds’ colors. It was fun.”
The children were accompanied from their hometown by a number of Immokalee High School students who are part of the college preparatory tutor corps, including Mariela

National Park Service intern Alex Christopher, and volunteer Mary Cummings, assist Cornel Taylor with his birding.
Galvan said her favorite memory of that Buddy Day was riding in the golf carts and that the event marked her first visit to the Gulf.
“It was a fun day,” she said. “It was really exciting for me. It was one of the first times I’d really been out somewhere, when I was a kid.”
Leave a Reply