Description
A residential environmental education center for schoolchildren during the school year, and a camp for children with life-threatening illnesses or who are "at risk" during the summer.
Location
On 138-acre site at Del Valle Regional Park south of Livermore. The site is the former location of the Alameda County Tuberculosis Sanitarium, at the end of Arroyo Road.
Participants
East Bay Regional Park District will coordinate the residential environmental education program; The Taylor Family Foundation will be responsible for the summer camp program.
Facilities
Camp Arroyo comprises six 24-person cabins, a dining hall/multi-purpose room, two bathhouses and a pool. These facilities accommodate some 144 campers and staff.
Phase II will add additional permanent facilities for the residential environmental education part of the project, allowing service to 225 campers and staff.
Architecture
The design is by Siegel and Strain Architects of Emeryville. The environmentally innovative design includes "green" features such as straw bale insulation, solar heating and gunned-earth construction for the pool, metal roofs to catch runoff water for irrigation, and use of recycled materials wherever possible.
Funding
The funding total for the two phases is $9.7 million, of which:
- The Taylor Family Foundation has raised and expended $3.6 million.
- The state budget for fiscal year 1998 included $2 million.
- The state budget for fiscal year 1999 included $2.5 million.
- The State Park Bond Act (Prop. 12) fiscal year 2000 includes $2 million.
- California Integrated Waste Management Board: $200,000.
- In addition, the Regional Parks Foundation is funding camp furnishings in addition to scholarships so that schoolchildren from low-income schools will be able to attend the environmental education programs. The Alameda County Integrated Waste Management Authority and Recycling Board has contributed funds for curriculum development, the organic garden and teaching support.