[ad_1]
MILLEDGEVILLE — One-hundred-and-twenty-three Baldwin County college students not too long ago made their method to Wild Adventures Theme Park for a visit of a lifetime however it seems simply getting there was an journey itself.
Alicia Jenkins is an training coordinator for Oak Hill Center College’s YES program, which is funded by the Georgia Division of Schooling and is an extension of the Nita M. Lowey twenty first Century Neighborhood Studying Facilities. Jenkins and her colleagues had spent the summer season educating this system’s Summer time Journey campers classes surrounding this yr’s theme — “The Wild Adventures of YES.”
Together with quite a lot of STEAM and different studying actions, they’d centered on concepts akin to serving to college students suppose exterior of the field to the entire prospects awaiting them.
That’s the place the concept of a Wild Adventures subject journey got here into play.
Because the COVID-19 pandemic, Jenkins stated the camps hadn’t been in a position to go on any main subject journeys, and coordinators have been hopeful this might give the scholars a possibility to see real-life examples of the issues they’d spent the summer season studying about. They’d have possibilities to see science in motion by means of the physics of curler coasters or by observing totally different animal habitats.
And since this yr’s camp included an entrepreneurship facet, they may discover future profession prospects. The journey, which was set to be funded by twenty first Century, can be a primary for most of the college students.
“Lots of the children had not been to any sort of amusement park in any respect and this wasn’t going to price them something, so plenty of the children that don’t get to take part as a result of funds have been going to get an opportunity to take part and see plenty of the stuff that we had realized about upfront,” Jenkins stated. “It wasn’t going to be one thing they only learn in a guide or any person instructed them about or they watched on TV. They have been really going to get to expertise it firsthand.”
Jenkins and her co-workers took care of all conditions for the journey and talked backwards and forwards with the Wild Adventures representatives of their planning. The whole lot seemed to be set.
A number of days earlier than the journey, Jenkins obtained an e mail from Wild Adventures stating the park does not usually settle for a purchase order order for the tickets.
“That’s actually the one method we might pay for the tickets was by means of a purchase order order,” Jenkins stated. “I don’t know of any faculty district that may pay straight up beforehand for tickets.”
Jenkins was involved she must cancel the journey.
“I simply couldn’t settle with that,” she stated. “I couldn’t settle for that. I couldn’t take a look at the children and inform them they weren’t going.”
The subsequent choice was to achieve out to the group for pledges to sponsor scholar tickets.
“It was a protracted shot however I needed to ensure that I had exhausted each attainable avenue earlier than I canceled the journey as a result of the children had actually been wanting ahead to it,” she stated. “We had primarily based our whole program round it.”
Jenkins reached out to a few native companies; she met along with her colleagues to debate concepts like automobile washes and barbecue plate gross sales; she even emailed U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock to inquire in regards to the acceptance of buy orders. Finally, this system wanted to give you about $4,000. So, at about 2:30 p.m. on a Thursday afternoon, Jenkins made a plea to the group on social media, after which she and her fellow coordinators stated a prayer.
With uncertainty looming, she left the submit and waited.
It was about 5 o’clock the subsequent morning when Jenkins awoke to a nice shock.
She found this system had obtained $5,000 in pledges for the journey.
“Friday morning, we bought the phrase that we did manage to pay for and that the group positively got here out and so they all pledged that we’d have the cash to take the children to Wild Adventures.”
Then, Jenkins bought a name again from Wild Adventures after lunch stating the park would settle for the acquisition order. It had been a misunderstanding, she stated.
“The YES Program offers improbable academic alternatives for college kids and we have been very blissful to help in that,” Adam Floyd, senior advertising and marketing and gross sales supervisor with Wild Adventures Theme Park, stated in a press release. “Throughout their go to to Wild Adventures, the scholars skilled hands-on studying that takes classroom ideas and places them right into a ‘actual world’ context. That sort of studying fosters deeper understanding of ideas and sparks imaginations.”
Although ultimately it wasn’t wanted, Jenkins and her colleagues definitely noticed that the group had their again. And ultimately, 123 college students and some adults skilled an exquisite journey.
“They did every part,” Jenkins stated.
The scholars explored habitats, ate a buffet lunch, performed within the water park, rode curler coasters and talked to staff for concepts about their very own profession paths. The youngsters paid for nothing. Aside from what was already funded, Sinclair Oconee Properties paid for memento cups that might be refilled all through the day, and a few native church buildings sponsored two cabanas to assist college students beat the warmth.
For Jenkins, seeing the best way the group supported the children was second solely to seeing the scholars take all of it in.
“The youngsters had an outstanding time,” Jenkins stated. “It was an amazing assist from the group to see these children get to go and expertise that. … I feel it meant quite a bit to the children that we stated we have been going to do that and we really went by means of and we did it. … Simply to see their faces as they ran across the park, that was sufficient for me.”
[ad_2]
Source link
