A special and educational summer camp, for the first time in Monza. The civil protection school camp began yesterday in the city, thanks to the enthusiasm of twenty children between the ages of 10 and 13: a reality that perfectly reproduces a camp set up by the civil protection for emergencies, complete with equipped tents and volunteers who give practical exercises and theoretical lessons to the children. It is located at the scout camp behind the sanctuary of the Madonna delle Grazie Vecchie, made available by the Franciscan friars. “Through a week-long educational program, which will end on Saturday in the early afternoon, the children have the opportunity to get closer to the civil protection system – explains Mario Stevanin, head of the municipal civil protection group of Monza -. Thanks to the collaboration of the forces that intervene in emergency situations – including the local police, firefighters, Red Cross, Alpine troops, Rescue dog, Monzasoccorso – they will deepen their knowledge of the risks present in the area and the civil protection plans, learning the correct behaviors to adopt in the event of an emergency”. Hence the explanation of how the initiative was born: “This is an activity of the National Department of Civil Protection, called “I am also Civil Protection”, which has existed since 2007 (last year over 270 camps were set up throughout Italy involving 7 thousand children, ed.) – explains Stevanin -. Some of our volunteers have participated for three years in an internship in a school camp in Bastia Umbra, where it has been taking place since 2015 and they had the idea of trying to propose it here in Monza too. The volunteers from Bastia will also come here to give us a hand, one of the tents is set up for them, another for us and the remaining 4 for the children, who will sleep there on Thursday and Friday night”.
One of the four volunteers who proposed the initiative in Monza, Laura Crepaldi, enthusiastically describes the rich program that awaits the very young students: “There are so many activities. Each day there is a different educational objective and for each lesson, such as the one on forest fire prevention, there is a test and then a game. The first three days follow the traditional summer camp schedule, from 8 to 18, on Thursday and Friday they will sleep here and on the last evening we will have a bonfire”. “The goal is to propose it at least once every two years – continues the volunteer – making them sleep here every day, and it reaches the maximum availability of accommodation, which is 30 places”. “This year we stopped at 20 because we had little time to publicize it, at a time when families have usually already organized their children’s summers – concludes the manager Stevanin -. For next year we will propose it again within the months of April and May”.
