— The Tortuguero elementary school needs your help!

Sustainable tourism agencies in Costa Rica have teamed up to support an elementary school serving 200 students in the far northeast corner of Costa Rica.

In the lush, canal-filled town of Tortuguero, the school suffers from serious deterioration of its roof and structure mainly from sea water corrosion.

ARA Tours, an innovative, multilingual incoming tour operator in Costa Rica supporting local tour operators and travel agencies to deliver high quality packages, together with ACTUAR, the Costa Rican Association of Rural Community Tourism, are leading a funding drive to purchase materials for much-needed repairs to the school.

A list of materials needed for local community volunteers to carry out the repair work is available by emailing <[email protected]>.

ARA Tours has an arrangement with the local Gavilán hardware store, which is being used to avoid transportation costs, to provide donors with a receipt for their donation indicating what materials were purchased.

One of the classroom pavilions which houses two classrooms will have its roof removed and an electrical system installed starting when classes end for the year in early December, explained ARA Tours project organizers, so as not to disrupt classes.

ARA Tours and ACTUAR, which helps promote and strengthen community-based tourism through its network of more than 40 partners in Costa Rica, invite all interested people and institutions to get involved with the project, and thus contribute to strengthening education in this rural community.

As part of their vision of sustainable tourism, say they view the project as a way to, “return help to this community with which many of us work with our tourist operations,” said Daniel Küng, founder and co-owner of ARA Tours, and native of Switzerland.

If you are looking for a way to make a difference, contact ARA Tours, and you might even have the perfect reason to go bask in the lowland wilds of Tortuguero’s beautiful mangrove forests by volunteering on this school improvement project.

For more information, call ARA Tours at 2234-0400, ext 452.