When kids step outside on a warm summer night and see fireflies they instinctually run to catch them. When Laura Vaughn sees fireflies, her instincts tell her to catch something a little less tangible.

In 2004, Vaughn traveled to the Dominican Republic to study and teach health education to local teenagers. To her surprise, however, this trip and the local community who took Vaughn in had a far greater affect on her than she did on the students.

“That trip really showed me a different way of living and fulfilled needs in my life that were never met before; it was truly life altering.” she said. “Once I returned to the United States I wanted to give back to my own culture and give others the opportunity to experience the same things I had.”

And so this past year Vaughn started Cucuyo: Center for Creative Exploration in the Dominican Republic as a way to reach out to high school students.

The local non-profit organization will host its first major fundraiser, Firefly Brew, this weekend. The night will include homemade beer, lemonade and tea brews, an auction and live music from local artist Emily Hearn.

The title Firefly Brew as well as the organization’s mason jar filled with fireflies logo stem from the name Cucuyo, which means firefly in Dominican folk language.

“I chose fireflies as the organization’s symbol, because the idea of the program is to bring out the inherent inner light that exists in all children,” Vaughn said. “Also, in Dominican folklore fireflies represent souls of the deceased coming back to guide the living, and Cucuyo’s ultimate goal is to raise up leaders.”

Vaughn hopes to raise up these leaders in an environment that also attracts artistically and socially conscious youth. To accomplish this she has organized various art and theatre camps in the Dominican Republic that will be open to both American and Dominican teens. The summer of 2010 will mark the first of these camps.

“We think this will be a great way to immerse American teens in a new culture, and to keep Dominican youth off the streets through something they may never have experienced otherwise,” said Bianca Biduic, Cucuyo’s general intern.

Right now Cucuyo is in the process of recruiting teachers and raising money for necessary camp materials. Although bilingual teachers may seem crucial to a multicultural camp, Vaughn and Biduic stress that it is not a requirement and in some ways prefer teachers who don’t speak Spanish and English.

“We encourage communication through art, relying less on language and more on some deeper communication,” Vaughn said. “Although this will be more difficult in some ways, it’s more meaningful on another level.”

“We want to show that language doesn’t have to be a barrier in cultural exchange,” Biduic said.