KTUU.com | Alaska's news and information source | Camper hosts on school grounds for summer

Camper hosts on school grounds for summer

by Bianca Slota
Saturday, May 26, 2007

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- School may be out for summer, but it isn't out forever and eventually classrooms will be full again. To make sure nothing happens in the meantime the Anchorage School District uses a unique vandalism prevention program. The Anchorage School District relies on something called camper hosts to keep an eye on buildings and playgrounds and cut down on losses from vandalism.

Each summer, schools in Anchorage become small RV parks, sometimes hosting just one RV, sometimes hosting two. In exchange for keeping an eye on the school and playground campers get an electric hookup and a septic system pump out once a week.

The Anchorage School District says camper hosts help save about $1,500 in maintenance costs for each school, sometimes more. Each time someone sets fire to a playground the district spends several thousand dollars to repair it.

"I think the vandalism usually takes the form of window breaks, graffiti, graffiti paint, and skateboard damage," said Mark Mew, Anchorage School District security and emergency preparation director.

ASD says the camper host program has gotten to be so popular it hardly has to do any advertising. The program has been featured in motor home magazines and news about it has spread through word of mouth.

"A lot of our folks really are people who used to live here and they still got family here. They want to visit their grandkids, you know, they moved out of state," said Mew.

That's exactly why Gary and Kay Pederson decided to be camper hosts at Ravenwood Elementary in Eagle River, although they first tried it out for a different reason.

"In 2005 we decided to sell our home and it sold in a day, so that was in June and we needed to scramble to have a place for our motor home," said Kay Pederson.

After one summer as hosts, the Pedersons were hooked. Now they drive up from their home in South Dakota to spend the summer keeping watch at Ravenwood Elementary.

"Kids come through, we get to see them and it's just fun, it's fun, it's just a fun place to be. Plus to see the mountains every day and wake up to that is super," said Gary Pederson.

The Pedersons lock up the entry gate to the school every night at 11 p.m. and say they don't have much trouble keeping kids off the playground after hours.

"There haven't been any real challenges. The kids are generally polite if you ask them to leave, point out that the playground closes at 11," said Gary Pederson.

The Pedersons plan to stay all summer. Some hosts only stay a month. Either way, the district says this is the best way it knows how to keep schools safe while the kids are away.

So far this summer about 70 people have signed up to be camper hosts. Thirty-two of them arrived this weekend and others will show up throughout the next few weeks. ASD says by the end of the summer it expects more than 100 camper hosts.

ASD also has other ways to avoid vandalism. The main thing is boarding up windows. The maintenance department puts plywood over the windows because the most common type of damage to schools is rocks or other objects being thrown through the glass. ASD is also starting to put more security cameras on school ground. It didn't want to give away where the cameras are or how many there are, but says more are added each month.

Contact Bianca Slota at bslota@ktuu.com