Sunburst Academy Sends Cadets to Catalina for Community Service

EMERALD BAY一 Sunburst Youth Academy, based in Los Alamitos, led a group of 116 cadets over to Catalina Island Oct. 15-17 for a community service project at the Boy Scouts of America Camp Emerald Bay. This is the third trip the academy has made out to the island so cadets can experience the island and provide some much-needed assistance to the camp in the form of brush clearance, cabin cleanouts, and other maintenance activities that have fallen to the wayside since COVID-19 began. “…As I began thinking about the need the Boy Scouts have and the needs the kids have, I saw a perfect fit,” said Jeannie Anderson, a paraeducator at Sunburst Youth Academy and organizer of the Catalina trips. “…Especially after COVID. The Boy Scouts had no campers for about a year and a half and there were roughly three people on staff that were running the entire camp. They did not have the manpower to keep up with all of the brush clearance and regular maintenance of the camp. They were buried under the amount of work that needed to happen.” Sunburst Youth Academy is a for-credit five-month high school program for students between the ages of 15 and 18 who are...