Delaney Kilgour, a local 12-year-old who has been accepted to this year's NASA Space and Rocket, Robotics Academy, is ready for take off.
The youngster is a student at the Beaver Lake Cree Nation's Amisk Community School. He is invited from the U.S Space and Rocket Center to go to Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama from July 28 - August 9. He leaves for the camp this week, along with his grandmother Karen Young who is also Kilgour's legal guardian. The duo have planned a road trip (instead of flying ) which takes around one week from Lac La Biche to the destination.
Space Camp is a non-profit organization, started in 1982, designed to inspire youngsters to study science, math, and engineering by encouraging them to participate in technological programs, astronaut training, and simulated space shuttle missions. The program has been proclaimed by teachers and parents as a highly creditable educational experience, and so far it has been attended by millions of students from across 70 countries, and this year, Kilgour will also be a part of it.
Being an avid builder who has already dabbled with computer coding and robotics, the camp is a perfect experience for the young Grade 7 student according to his family and friends. The youngster has been working hard to raise the money needed for the trip, picking bottles and baby-sitting. He has already paid the space camp’s registration fee which was more than $3,500 CAD, and still collecting funds and recyclables to help sponsor the accommodation and other travel expenses of the trip.
With $10,000 being the total budget for the once-in-a-lifetime-trip, both Delaney and Young have done an impressive job collecting funds, however they are still short of $1,200 from the target amount for the one-month trip.
"Everything is going good. We are still short a few dollars, but it's not as bad as I thought it would be... We have $8,800 and we still have a target of about $1,200 (before we leave)," Young said as she spoke with the POST about the preparations of the trip.
With one week of road trip ahead, two weeks of stay and one week back, both Kilgour and Young are set on quite a mission, but they are all ready and excited for it and there will be lots for the young genius to learn. Kilgour's program will consist of next generation Science standards and National Education Math standards, hands-on astronaut training simulations, team-based simulated space missions, multi axis training, Engineering robotics and a space camp project.
"He has to study Math, Science and Engineering while he is at camp... I don't know what to expect yet myself so, I am looking forward to it... He (Delaney) is getting very excited as well," said Young.
She also took the opportunity to thank all the locals and community members from both Lac La Biche and Beaver Lake Cree Nation, who have helped Kilgour through donations and support.
"I would like to thank the community of Lac La Biche County. Friends and other people from throughout the whole country have been very supportive, especially the Stollery Children's Hospital in Edmonton. They were the biggest inspiration in all of this. I would like to give them credit," young said.
Anyone who wishes to help out can still donate to the bottle drive. Call Karen Young at (780) 404-7170 or Email her at [email protected]. Young hopes to see continuous community support and plans on sharing stories with locals once they are back from their journey.
