During the Gloucester County School Board’s February meeting Abingdon Elementary School gave a presentation about its fourth-grade field trip to Colonial Williamsburg in November, organized by Gloucester Museum of History Director Robert Kelly. The trip was free of any costs for the students to attend.
Last summer, Kelly approached Abingdon with the idea of taking all of the school’s fourth grade students to Colonial Williamsburg on charter buses.
“It has grown from there,” said Abingdon Community Engagement Coordinator Lauren Ginder. “All of our elementary schools will be participating in this study trip at various times throughout the year.”
“One of the things that we’ve really tried to focus on is educating our students,” said Kelly during the meeting. “And making them appreciate not only our local history, but the importance of all history; the good, the bad and the ugly because that’s the nature of our history.”
The educational committee of the Gloucester250 Committee, which Kelly co-chairs, was adamant about sending all fourth graders to CW. To give the students the full Colonial Williamsburg experience, the committee realized that students would need to be there most of the day.
“We realized we needed more than just the few hours that we could be accommodated by the school buses,” said Kelly.
Gloucester250 was able to negotiate a deal with Newton’s Bus Service to provide charter buses for the trip. Between the committee and Ginder, they found grant money in the amount of $2,250 from the American Battlefield Trust that was earmarked specifically for field trips. The Gloucester Community Foundation also provided $3,500 for the trip.
To save a bit of money for the trip, Kelly, Ginder, Gloucester Museum of History Specialist Sidney Ripley, Senior Community Engagement Coordinator Debra Falkenberg, and Gloucester County Tourism and Marketing Supervisor Susan Ammons were tour guides for the students.
“We were there on the ground for about six hours,” said Kelly. “And every student had the same experience. We split up and we went four different ways.”
Before the field trip, Kelly and Ripley visited the fourth graders at school to prepare them for their visit and instruct them on proper museum etiquette.
During the meeting, a few students talked about their experience at Colonial Williamsburg.
“In November, our fourth-grade class got a chance to visit and tour Colonial Williamsburg,” said Ally Akins. “My favorite part of this trip was the silversmith because it was cool that they used weight of money to pay for stuff.”
“My hope as the director of the museum here is that we can find a way to do more things like this,” said Kelly.
“This trip came completely free to these children,” said Ginder. “They did not pay a dime for the trip at all, and that was our goal.”
Colonial Williamsburg trips for the fourth-grade classes at the four other county elementary schools are being planned for the spring.
According to Kelly, the total cost for each field trip for about 90 students per school is approximately $3,600. This includes admission tickets ($900) and transportation via charter bus ($2,700).
Community members and organizations who would like to support the field trip program can send donations to the Gloucester Museum Foundation.