Trip of a lifetime for local teens, Celina Record

Local teens prep for annual trip to nation’s capital Lisa Ferguson, lferguson@starlocalmedia.com Jun 2, 2016 Gage Gibbs plans to run for president of the United States in 2036. In fact, the Celina Junior High School eighth-grader said he has already come up with a catchy campaign slogan: “En-Gage in your country’s future.” On Sunday, the teen will travel to Washington, D.C. with his classmates to tour many of the landmarks, museums, memorials and other exhibits the nation’s capital has to offer. That may include a stop at the White House, although Gibbs said he’ll likely be too excited during the visit to bother measuring for drapes or calling dibs on which bedroom he’ll occupy during his forthcoming presidency. “I love politics and I love history,” the 14-year-old said. “Everything is gonna be amazing.” That type of wide-eyed enthusiasm is why Kaye Jones, who teaches keyboarding and technology at the school, said she has for more than a decade organized and overseen its annual D.C. trip. “We get there and those kids are so excited and they just love all of it,” she said. “All of the monuments and memorials that they have seen in the textbooks and on the news, they’re seeing them in person.” By partnering with an educational student-travel company, WorldStrides, Jones is able to secure tours for the teens of the Pentagon, Ford’s Theatre, the Washington Monument, Capitol Hill and Arlington National Cemetery, among other sites. Jones brought the program to Celina Junior High in 2005 from Pilot Point, where she formerly taught and orchestrated five D.C. trips for students. “I’m very passionate about it … and obviously it enhances their education,” she said. The teens paid nearly $1,600 each to take part in this year’s four-day, three-night excursion during which they will be chaperoned by 25 adults including parents and teachers from the district. To cover the cost, many students participated in fundraising activities throughout the school year that included the sales of cookie dough, fall mums, holiday poinsettias and Texas Roadhouse restaurants’ famous yeast rolls. Hannah Thompson, 14, took part in each of the fundraisers. The flight to D.C. will be her first trip on an airplane. “I’m very excited,” she said, especially to visit the United States Holocaust Museum. Thompson and her classmates studied the genocide in their English classes this year. Jones said the museum is consistently a favorite tour stop among the students each year, as is George Washington’s Mt. Vernon estate and the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial. While at Arlington National Cemetery, four Celina students will participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns. “It’s an incredible trip,” said Celina Junior High School Principal John Mathews, who accompanied the students last year. Given that students study U.S. history in eighth grade, Mathews said the trip gives them an opportunity “to actually see [history], put their hands on it, walk by it. It becomes much more personal. … It’s not just something they read about, it’s something that happened.” During previous trips, Jones said she and the students have been lucky enough to experience a couple close encounters of the presidential kind. Once, while the students watched a military-band performance at the Jefferson Memorial, the president’s helicopter flew overhead. Another time, Jones said she and the teens waited to cross a street as the first lady’s motorcade sped past them. “It’s just the trip of a lifetime,” Jones said, especially since “many of these students will not ever go to Washington, D.C. again.” Except, of course, for Gibbs, who hopes to be able to call the White House home beginning in 2037. Before that, though, the teen and his family will return to D.C. to attend the presidential inauguration in January. “That’s an experience of a lifetime,” he said. “That’s a bucket-list item for me.”