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Special
Visitors In Cabarete
La Costa
Ano 3 No. 6, 1997
By Ed Butts
Recently Iguana Mama, Cabarete's renowned
mountain bike adventure centre, hosted a group of teenage
girls as part of a project with New Horizons Ministries, an
American organization devoted to helping troubled youths.
Students at the school come from all over the United States
and are here because of a wide variety of personal and social
problems. Rob Bebosa, a teacher at the school for the past
three years, says many of the kids who arrive there are underachieving
but high potential teenagers who lack self-confidence and
require some structure and consistency in their lives. They
also must learn to respect authority.
Being sent to a strict school in the Dominican
Republic exposes them to a certain degree of "culture
shock" which should give them "a foundation in reality
testing", according to Mr. Bebosa. The school also has
a high success rate, has been rewarded for community service,
and has a point system for good behavior, which is why some
of the students were in Cabarete.
Iguana Mama, already a philanthropic contributor
to community aid projects, became involved because Patricia
Suriel, company president, felt she could do something for
fellow Americans, as well as for the community. The students
who stayed in Cabarete had earned a tour of several days.
Ms. Suriel offered one of the permitted kids to "camp
out" in her bike shop. The girls were treated to pizza
and videos, and then has a great day out on the bikes. They
told Patricia later that it was the high point of their tour.
That's a special endorsement indeed.
© La Costa
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