Central Intermediate School Jr. Beta Goes to Washington, DC

Submitted by Central Intermediate School Staff
     Fifteen members of the Central Intermediate School 2013-2014 Jr. Beta Club partook in an educational field trip to Williamsburg, VA, Jamestown, VA, and Washington, D.C. during the dates of May 1-4, 2014.  They were accompanied by three CIS faculty members and fourteen family chaperons. Student participants included: Diamond Dixon, Hunter Dixon, Jason Dixon, Nathan Ellis, Sarah Ford, Summer Guidry, Christian Jensen, Seth Landry, Lia Neff, Nia Pitts, Adam O’Banion, Dylan O’Banion, Lexi Posey, Avery Shaffer, and Kyle Stewart.  CIS chaperons were Karen Hill and Jeannie Averette, 5th grade teachers, and Jeremy O’Banion, Assistant Principal.  Parent and family chaperons included Sandy Antoon, Stacy Davis, Jacqueline Dixon, Kelli Dixon, Gay Ellis, Stephen Green, Donna Guidry, Joyce Jensen, Kayleigh Jensen, Bernedette Neff, Nadina Pitts, Jennifer O’Banion, Gary Shaffer, and Erica Stewart. 
     After landing at Reagan National Airport, the group was met by their World Strides Course Leader and bus and whisked away to Arlington National Cemetery where they received a guided tour of the grounds.  In addition, they were able to witness the changing of the guard ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and observed a wreath-laying ceremony.  That afternoon they were given a guided tour of the Capitol, rotunda, and Statuary Hall, and later spent the night in Williamsburg, VA.  
     In Williamsburg the following day, the fifth graders were taken back to the 17th and 18th centuries beginning with a walking tour through the mystical streets of Colonial Williamsburg.  Students were intrigued by the old Capitol building and colonial prison.  However, what captivated the group’s attention most was the tour of the Governor’s Palace, home to seven royal governors and the first two elected governors in Virginia.
     The next stop in their travels was Jamestown, Virginia, where many hands-on activities were available to the students as they watched the pages of their history books come to life.  The boys and girls were able to encounter colonial life as they learned to scrape the fur off an animal hide, watched a Native American cook over an open fire, and climbed aboard a replica of a ship that sailed from England to Virginia in 1607.  The finale of their visit to Jamestown was a demonstration of a British soldier loading and firing a musket.   To end a perfect day in history, the group was entertained and instructed in how music came to the states via the African slaves performed by the husband and wife duo, Atumpan, The Talking Drums.  
     In two days’ time, the whole crew from Central viewed the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., FDR, Jefferson, World War II, Lincoln, Korean, Iwo Jima, and Vietnam Memorials. They also visited three Smithsonian Museums—the Natural History Museum, the Museum of American History, and the Air and Space Museum—and took a walking tour of Mt. Vernon (historical home of George Washington), the Ford Theatre, and the Peterson House where Lincoln was taken after he was shot. 
     The trip would not have been possible without the support of the Central Community School System School Board, CIS principal, Rhonda Taylor, and the professional team from World Strides based in Charlotte, NC.  The students and Mrs. Averette and Mrs. Hill would like to thank the CCSS School Board, our principal, Rhonda Taylor, the parents who financed their trip, and the parents who chaperoned for providing us this chance-of-a-lifetime opportunity.  We came back with new friendships and memories that will last our lifetimes!