Race to help school’s rainforest project

Eric Leake

Friday, Oct. 15, 2004 | 9:34 a.m.

Students walking through the heart of John C. Vanderburg Elementary School might think they're in another part of the world.

Macaws perch, lightning flashes, and the air is heavy and damp.

"It gets very wet in here. Sometimes you walk through and you can't even see through the mist," fifth grader Max Frank said during a tour of the school's rainforest biosphere.

On Saturday Vanderburg will hold a 5 kilometer run, 1 mile walk to raise money for biosphere maintenance and programming. The $1.2 million biosphere opened in 2002 through the help of numerous community sponsors.

Race director and special education teacher Carolyn Battin said she is hoping to raise $50,000 in this year's event for the biosphere, which relies solely upon donations.

She said the 3,200-square-foot hands-on ecology laboratory, where the school's courtyard once was, is the next best thing to an actual rainforest.

"You can go on the Internet and look at it all you want," Battin said. "But everything comes alive today in this space."

Vanderburg and schools throughout the district use the biosphere for lessons and as a field trip destination.

Frank and his classmates Ali Cheetany and Kelsey Kincaid are among the Vanderburg students who have been trained to lead tours through the biosphere.

"It's fun teaching other kids and schools about the rain forests and how important it is to save them," Kincaid said.

She pointed to a multimedia display about rain forests around the world in the Mayan Temple room, which serves as the biosphere's visitor center.

"I like this school a lot," Kincaid said. "We're really lucky."

She and her fellow guides said they had learned "a ton" about ecology through the biosphere.

The biosphere houses an amphitheater, waterfall, archaeological dig pit, grow lab and computer lab. Residents, some in cages, include two macaws, a dozen finches, frogs, fish, geckos, a turtle and a 6-foot-long iguana named Iggy.

Jungle plants are everywhere.

The students shared some of the school legends about Iggy's adventures. (He was recovering Thursday after having eaten some rocks.)

Frank said there used to be two anacondas in the biosphere, but they scared young children.

"We used to have a frog in the pond, but the turtle ate it," added Cheetany, who wore a "Vanderburg Biosphere" T-shirt.

That was another of the biosphere's lessons in ecology, he said.

Registration the day of the race begins at 6:30 a.m. and is $30. All proceeds go to the Rainforest Biosphere Foundation. The race begins at 8 a.m. at the Henderson Multigenerational Center on Green Valley Parkway at Paseo Verde.

For more information on the biosphere or race, visit mybiosphere.com.