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At 8:30 a.m. on Monday, July 29th, a bus picked up the 22 Avon students and 13 chaperone's to begin an adventure that they would not soon forget. The trip was to Washington D.C. After boarding the bus, it then drove the group to Minneapolis where they flew out the next day on July 30th. They arrived at the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport on Tuesday, July 30th promptly at 8:45 a.m. The chaperone's for the trip were Bridgette Muller, Craig Vanderlei, Teanna Kuhlman, Melissa Petrik, Janelle Sees, Janelle Pekas, Kenny Podzimek, Dwight Brandt, Julia Sassaman, Liz Namminga, Liz Eggers, Becky Haenfler and Lindsey Fathke. The 22 students that attended ranged from eighth grade to sophomores in high school including Raegan Brandt, Austin DeVries, Addison Lavelle, Jayden Petrik, Brenson Ratzlaff, Jacob Sassaman, Sean Schryvers, Piper Steffen, Beau Tolsma, Brielle Voigt, Kaydence Metzger, Parker Podzimek, Easton Sees, Pria Sesler, Bree Vanderlei, Rance Kuhlman, Jake Namminga, Charlie Paulsen, Grayson Ratzlaff, Rilyn Thury, Thayne Tjeerdsma and Jordyn Voigt. A representative from World Classrooms, which is a tour agency out of Aberdeen, came to the Avon school and spoke to the students. Some of the highlights of traveling through this tour company include having two trained staff members available 24/7 to ensure safety and a seamless travel experience; a licensed tour guide that leads the tour in addition to the tour directors which include East Coast experts who know tons of mind-blowing facts; a World Classroom support staff available at all times; a clean, private charter bus; have the entire experience planned out for the group; and amazing food that showcases the flavor of D.C. Students that wished to sign up for the East Coast Explorer Washington D.C., Mt. Vernon and Gettysburg trip could do so during the agency’s visit. The students were able to set up a payment plan to collect the funds to pay for their portions of the trip. The students and chaperone's paid for themselves to be able to go on this trip. The group was off to sight see from the moment they stepped off the plane. The first day they toured the U.S. Capitol, the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court, the WWII Memorial and the Washington Monument before checking into their hotel for the evening. The following day’s activities started with The Arlington National Cemetery which included watching the Changing of the Guard Ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the JFK Eternal Flame Memorial. This was followed by the Marine Corps War Memorial (Iwo Jima), the Holocaust Memorial Museum, the White House, Lafayette Square and the Memorial Tour (Vietnam, Korean, Lincoln and Reflecting Pool). The third day, Thursday, had the students and chaperone's once again immersed in the rich history of the United States. On this day, they toured the Gettysburg National Military Park which included the cyclorama, museum and visitors center. The cyclorama consists of an oil painting that is longer than a football field and as tall as a four-story structure with lights and sound effects that gives the visitor a taste of what the fury of the final Confederate assault in 1863 would have felt like. The group then took a tour of the battlefield where they were able to experience a Civil War cannon demonstration and climb the Longstreet Observation Tower to get a better view of the overall battlefield. They then walked the Tidal Basin where they could see the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, Thomas Jefferson Memorial and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial as they walked the two-mile trail. After a long day of sight seeing, the group then spent their evening exploring old town Alexandria. The final day of their adventure, the group started out by touring George Washington’s Mount Vernon where they visited the museum and tomb. This was followed by touring the Smithsonian Museums, which ended the touring and sight seeing portions of the trip. Now came time for everyone to return to South Dakota. There was bit of a complication for the group as they tried to travel home. As their flights were canceled, they had to make several other arrangements and break into different groups to get back to Avon. Principal, Lindsey Fathke, said that “the students were AMAZING throughout the entire hold up at the airport.” Everyone returned home safely by August 5th. When asked what places did the students seem to enjoy the most, Lindsey said that each student enjoyed something different. As their principal, she enjoyed being able to see what peaked various students interests during their trip. Everyone, chaperone's included seemed to really enjoy the entire trip and experience. Even though they traveled to the different sites via bus, the group did an extensive amount of walking in their four days. One of the group members calculated that they walked about 35 miles during the course of the four days. The goal of this type of trip and experience is to provide students with an educational opportunity that they may not experience otherwise. Lindsey believes that the students really enjoyed the trip. She thinks that they have learned about some of the sites that they toured during their classes, so this experience was able to give them a real connection to the content they read about and site being physically seen in person. As they were touring different sites, the students would bring up information that they had already learned at school about a particular place which also helped make connections. The Washington D.C., Mount Vernon and Gettysburg trip will continue to be offered to Avon students. Lindsey said that it would probably be on an every other year rotation. Lindsey really enjoyed the trip in its entirety. For her, it was a great experience to get to visit so many different places in such a short time. If she were to go back, there are certain places that she knows that she would want to spend more time on at the museums. Lindsey is definitely looking forward to another group of Avon students getting the opportunity to get to experience D.C. in the future. Photo by Mellissa Petrik