Last month, Wayne High School started something it has never done before: planning a Washington, DC trip. Students, teachers and parents began fundraising for the spring history trip out east.
Geneva Peterson, Wayne’s Social Studies teacher, has headed up the whole process. She wants to get 40 of her students to Philadelphia; Washington, DC; and New York in April.
Similar to the Washington, DC, trips embarked upon by Garfield 6th graders, this trip will take students sightseeing in a place completely new to them and rich with United States history. The trip will be big, but it will be worth it. And for 10th-12th graders, what they’re learning in class about the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the beginning of the Revolutionary War, and the workings of branches of government today will become so much more real.
The group plans to leave April 2-7. However, “we’ll have to fundraise a lot of money to be able to take 40 students,” said Mrs. Peterson.
In December, Mrs. Peterson and her students put together a “Badger Boutique” to fundraise for the trip. Fifteen local vendors and a few from Salina and Richfield sold goods. Meanwhile some students ran booths themselves to fill the school with the yummy smells of baked goods and the sounds of fun.
Though the turnout was tough on the night of a wrestling tournament and a basketball game, a lot of people who came asked if the organizers would do an event like this again. Mrs. Peterson would respond, yes! She and Wayne High School are hoping to do the Washington (and more) trip every three years, with lots of fundraising in between.
This year, she is just so excited to finally be able to give something like this to the kids.
“We’re super excited,” she said. “This isn’t something we’ve done in years past, especially as isolated as we are in Wayne County. I was super excited to try to find something to do for them.”
She believes strongly that your zip code shouldn’t determine the kind of education you get. And it looks like in this case and that of many other towns in our little areas, it won’t.
– The Byway
Feature image courtesy of WHS Facebook.