June 5, 2012
Franklin Middle School Washington, D. C. Trip

Good evening! It is time once again to reflect on our wonderful journey to D.C. and give you some of the highlights of our trip. I hope you are enjoying the blogs and the information that is given to you. Are you calling your child and asking how things are? Is he/she responding? Is he/she saying, “We didn’t do much today?” Well, if that is the case, your child is not on the “Road Dog” bus from Franklin Middle School in Springfield, Illinois. Since we haven’t lost anyone yet, I am assuming your child is giving you detail upon detail as to the events of the day.

But - if your child isn’t doing that — you have ME:>:) While Mr. Knoepfle and Mr. Zinnen are in their rooms, probably talking sports and how much they enjoy bacon, I am in my hotel room, working diligently downloading photos and reporting the daily news for you. Sacrifices folks! :)

Let’s begin— today! Well, how do we start the day? Ask Tucker H. and Chris B., along with another group of boys who didn’t hear the alarm, didn’t set the alarm, but did WAKE UP to Mr. Zinnen’s pounding on the door as their morning wake up call. This is not too bad though...why, you might ask? Well, boys can hop out of bed, quickly get dressed, run to the bus holding their shoes and think everything is fine and dandy.
Girls? A whole new issue:! Don’t get me started. So, I think the boys made it to the bus in about 7 minutes and took a humorous verbal beating by every classmate, sponsor, but mostly from “Road Dog”—all in good fun!!!

As we arrive in Arlington Cemetery, the students are told many important details and facts about this historic site. For some of us, it felt as though we were walking in Oak Ridge Cemetery of Springfield. The hills, the majestic trees, and of course the many tomb stones that honor Americans.

As students watched the soldiers guard the tomb, and appreciate the sacrifice and duty of these men and women, we were also fortunate enough to be allowed to Lay a Wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The following students: Sensenya J.,Tyler S., Joseph A., and Steven S. were selected for this honor to represent Franklin Middle School. I think this will be an indelible moment in these kids' lives as they grow older and continue to appreciate the importance of this event. As chaperones and students of FMS, I know that everyone was very proud of these students and of Franklin Middle School during this ceremony.
Video was taken of this event and will be forthcoming.

As we moved on to the Iwo Jima Memorial, the kids really appreciated the magnitude of the sculpture and the delicate intricacies of the soldiers raising the American flag.

On to the Pentagon Memorial, after walking quite a bit, we learned so much about the site and the after effects of the terrorists attack of September 11, 2001. The Memorial was absolutely breathtaking and our guide, Diane, explained the significance of the 184 benches representing those who died on this day. Under each bench was a reflecting pool with the names of each Pentagon employee and passengers who were on Flight 77 directly headed toward the Pentagon. When you see the photos, you will notice benches facing the same angle as the flight heading toward the Pentagon and names of the victims at the end of the bench. Those employees of the Pentagon who also died have their names on the bench as well. Not only was the Memorial breath-taking, it was also very inspiring.

The Capitol and National Archives tour were great as well. The kids are impressing the guides with their knowledge and their "higher-level" questions. (cue: ILT and Karen Gibson:) Joking aside, the kids really are impressive with their history knowledge! It is very nice to see:)!

After some souvenir shopping and dinner at Hard Rock Cafe, we drove to the Kennedy Center for a performance of "Shear Madness". Wow! What an incredible opportunity for the kids to see a small venue improvisational company in the theater lab. This performance was hilarious and allowed the kids to help solve the crime. The kids said they loved the show and would definitely recommend seeing it if you had the chance. I concur:)!!

Our return to the hotel was short and students crashed from the 17,000 steps and 8.7 miles we walked!
The Franklin chaperones met up with the Rochester Middle School chaperones - how crazy is that?— and recapped the day's adventures.
I hope you enjoyed this blog - Go Falcons!!