Every year students in clubs and classes eagerly wait until the near close of the school year for reward field trips. Drama club waits for Pittsburgh, the music department and National Junior Honor Society for Hershey Park and grade level teams for Washington D.C., nuclear reactors, amusement parks and other attractions in the area.
Drama Club
“The trip is to reward the drama club for a very successful year and to provide a look at more opportunities in the theater,” Drama Advisor Jonathan Klingeman said.
On May 10, there were 194 students going on the trip. To control all 194 students, Klingeman took 29 other chaperones. They were ninth grade English teacher Alyssa Becher, seventh grade reading teacher Cathy Morgan, the drama teacher from the high school Marina Johnson, and teachers from various schools in the district.
The main rewards during the trip were going to the plays, Tarzan and Huck Finn. Along with students having to follow the code of conduct rules, Klingeman made the students wear business-casual attire for the plays. Students also went to the Hard Rock Cafe, the Pittsburgh Zoo and Dave and Busters.
“We’ve done a very similar trip each year, and the opportunities in Pittsburgh are close, so it makes it convenient for us to go,” Klingeman said.
“It was fun. I liked going to Dave and Busters. Seeing the Tarzan play was fun too,” seventh grader Hunter Weidlich said.
Music Department
The music department’s trip is also quickly approaching. They will travel on June 5 to Hershey Park. The trip is for a successful year for the music program.
Attending the trip as chaperones are volunteers from the Music Parents Association(MPA), chorus director Jessica Connell, Jon Yon, band director and organizer of the music department trip, band director Kent Martin and orchestra director Kelly Detwiler.
“Students have to wear the music departments t-shirt and school rules for lower body, bottoms and footwear still apply, except in the water park,” Yon said.
National Junior Honor Society(NJHS)
The next day, the NJHS will be heading to Hershey Park as well. There will be 95 members going on the trip.
The chaperones for this will be Barry-Kyle, NJHS advisor John Wharton, ninth grade math teacher Lisa Plummer, special education teacher Patti Wendle and math teacher Justin Arthur.
“The trip is a reward for maintaining membership throughout the year,” Barry-Kyle said.
“We talked about different places, but the big things is that it’s on a school night, so we can’t go far away. We were thinking about Cedar Point or Kings Dominion, but it’s on a Thursday,” Barry-Kyle said.
Students spend the whole day in the park, in either the ride section or the waterpark. For rides, attractions include the Storm Runner, Great Bear, Fahrenheit, Sidewinder and the new Skyrush. The waterpark includes a wavepool,various slides, such as Hydro, Pipeline, Riptide, Surge, Vortex and Whirlwind, the Bayside Pier and Sandcastle Cove.
Seventh Grade Teams
“We just meet with the teams to hear suggestions that they could do to tie in with what they are doing so they can have fun and motivate the students. A lot of the time it offers students something to look forward to,” Harrington said.
“I know Ms. Morgan’s team went to D.C. because they were doing activities that tied in with their science, reading and English classes. They went to the WWII Museum and the Washington D.C. Zoo. Another team went to State College to see the nuclear reactor and the astronomy lab. Team 2 went to the Mishler Theatre just before Christmas to see the Nutcracker. Team 5 is going to Delgrosso’s at the end of the year for science activities,” seventh grade principal Mark Harrington said.
These trips give students something to look forward to from the beginning of school as well as getting into curricular and extracurricular activities.
