Letter: community stepped up for students’ D.C. trip

To the Editor-

The Stevens Point/Plover community never ceases to amaze me with its generosity.

I’ve been the Program Leader for the 9th grade P.J. Jacobs Washington DC Trip for the last seven/eight years. Our students have been fundraising for the last five/six years to help pay for a trip that costs over $2,000. Our community has supported them.

For the last four/five years, we’ve had widespread community support for a local scholarship to assist students who would otherwise not be able to afford the trip, even with fundraising. This year we had a HUGE scholarship donation; a local benefactor stepped up and donated three full-ride scholarships!

The total result has been to send 21 additional students on the trip of a lifetime. But in the last week something even more amazing occurred. A PODS student thought that they were going on the trip. They fund raised for the trip but it wasn’t enough; they still couldn’t afford the cost. They come from a single-parent family with three children.

Two weeks before the trip the student went to the head secretary and asked if there was information about the trip that they needed to know; they hadn’t heard anything. They were so excited for the trip; never been out of the state before!

The secretary contacted me and after checking with the tour company; I discovered that they weren’t registered for the trip! I contacted the parent; financial circumstances had changed months ago and the parent forgot to discuss it with the student. I explained what had happened and then it started. The secretary decided to spearhead a fundraising campaign.

One week later (and one week before the trip), thanks to her, some of the staff at the school, the sheriff’s office, Mayor Mike Wiza, and other community members, the cost of the trip was no longer an issue! They are going to Washington, D.C.!

Thank you, Stevens Point community.

Dave Grabski
Washington, D.C. Trip Program Leader