LUNCHEON - 8TH APRIL 2015

Speakers: Rohan McKenna, Declan Hood and Tom Cowley

Topic:  NASA - Space Camp for the Visually Impaired

Chairperson: Cheryl Lacey

The U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Alabama makes its facilities available for one week each year to conduct a not for profit Space Camp for Vision Impaired students from all over the world. Those who attend have what is for them a truly memorable experience.

The Space Center Program aims to achieve a better acceptance by the students of their vision impairment and to be motivated to achieve newly discovered goals Among the many benefits associated with attending the camp is the teamwork, self-confidence and communication skills taught through state-of-the-art simulations, missions, rocket building, robotics and conducting experiments on the Inter-national Space Station

Six vision impaired students from Victorian schools accompanied by their teacher from the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development were partly sponsored by the Rotary Club of Melbourne to attend the 2014 camp.

It was most evident from the personal report given by the students that their visit to the Space camp was indeed both beneficial and a major event in their lives.

Synopsis Of The Lunch:

For those most fortunate to have been be present at lunch last Wednesday to observe the sheer joy and delight of the three young men who sat so comfortably, and confidently before us describing their experience of a lifetime when they journeyed to the NASA complex in the United States getting their hands on the machinery that drives the space explorers. To hear and see the unbridled happiness of these three visually impaired young Australians was a sheer delight and something to behold.