DAILY CAMP HYATT Where racial colors don’t matter

What started as a day-care service for hotel guests has developed into a major child development program since it was made available to the local community two years ago.

Daily Camp Hyatt is now a meeting place for kids from around the world to gather, play, swim, dance, paint, cook, and sing. Most important of all, it has become a place where, early in life, children learn to absorb an “international” attitude; where children learn that racial colors don’t matter.

“It’s really neat because now we have kids who live on Saipan that come everyday and join kids from other parts of the world who are on vacation,” says Chris Nelson, recreational manager of the Hyatt Regency Saipan.

“We have Japanese, Korean, Filipino, and Palauan kids. Some days we have kids from eight to nine different countries. It’s a neat combination because they grow up as international kids and understand a lot of different cultures in a lot of different ways,” Nelson adds.

Daily Camp Hyatt is designed as a pre-school and after-school development facility that caters to children from 3 to 12 years old. Unlike a regular head start school, Camp Daily Hyatt takes pride in having a low student-to-teacher ratio that promises a lot of personalized attention to the kids.

The camp offers such activities as swimming, gardening, dancing, cooking, painting, language and music lessons, among others.

Eddie Johnson — a skilled musician from Hawaii who has five years of experience working with pre-school and primary aged children — teaches local dance and instruments at the camp.

“Sometimes little boys don’t want to sing and dance because they think it’s only for girls. But Eddie makes them feel like it’s cool to sing and dance,” Nelson says.

Children enrolled at the camp are starting lessons in hula dancing and playing ukulele, Nelson says.

The camp is located in a corner next to Hyatt’s swimming pool and physical fitness center. One can find within the camp’s premises rows of vegetables plots.

“The kids are responsible for growing vegetables. Our chefs come up and teach the kids how to cook,” Nelson says.

“We’re in a unique situation. Being in the hotel business, we have chefs, gardeners, musicians, and people from all walks of life that we can tap for the program,” Nelson adds.
(MCM)