Our 18 year old son, Émile, arrived in Galapagos yesterday to start his 6 week volunteership with the Charles Darwin Station's communication team.  He'll be helping our former colleague, Paola Diaz in the creation of new communications videos.   Émile was born in Quito and spent the first 3 years of his life in the islands.  He learned how to walk on lava rocks. 

Since he was 12 or 13, Émile displayed an interest in video production and edition.  He was accepted into his high school's Artistic Excellence Centre, allowing him to pursue his interest there over the past 2 years.   We hope he'll be able to apply his skills to help further the Darwin Station's objectives.

Apart from his regular volunteer responsibilities, we have asked Émile to get to know the islands and the people and to improve his Spanish language capabilities.  In his spare time, we've also asked that he say hello to many of our partners - hotel, restaurant and ship owners.    

As a token of our appreciation, Émile brought down with him a new iMac computer to help with the Darwin Station's communication efforts (scroll down for picture).

Enjoy your summer Émile!

PS:  Here is the Darwin Station Director's "thank you" email:

From: Arturo Izurieta [mailto:arturo.izurieta@...
Sent: July-19-17 9:41 AM
To: Heather Blenkiron <hblenkiron@cnhtours.com>
Subject: Thanking you so much

 Dear Marc and Heather,

With this letter I send my sincere thanks on behalf of the entire CDF team for your very kind donation of both the computer and Emile’s stay with us here at the Research Station.

It’s a great joy to have Emile here working with us and we look forward to his contribution to our work and success. The CDF is expanding once more, with the corresponding need for additional resources, and so this donation of equipment is a tremendous help, in particular for the growing communications team.

Once more, from all of us here in Galapagos, thank you for your generosity and support. We look forward to seeing you in November!

Un abrazo,

Arturo Izurieta V, Ph.D
Director Ejecutivo / Executive Director
Fundación Charles Darwin para las Islas Galápagos
Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands
www.darwinfoundation.org

 

Émile (2nd from left), Paola (left) and the communications team at the Darwin Station, showing off the newly installed iMac yesterday.