For four months they planned, studied and raised money, all for the trip of a lifetime.
Eight Longmont High School students were scheduled to leave July 13 for a two-week trip to Longmont’s sister city, Chino, Japan. The trip was to include staying with host families in Chino.
That all changed with a phone call. Richard Alpert, one of the two chaperones with the Longmont Sister Cities Association, was informed that the host families were no longer willing to accept the students.
“The main concern was that we would bring swine flu to Japan,” Alpert said.
Casey Chandler, a 17-year-old junior at Longmont High, had been preparing for months.
“Well, honestly, going into it, I had zero dollars and I’ve done a lot of fundraising,” she said.
She and the others have done everything from car washes to candy sales. They had raised and spent more than $10,000 on airline tickets for the trip.
Unfortunately, the airline tickets are not refundable.
“I want to cry,” Chandler said. “I’m not going to, but I’m going to cry later, that’s for sure.”
The students made the commitment to learn Japanese customs and basics of the language. They had met twice a week for four months in an effort to prepare themselves for the experience.
“It would have been one of the biggest learning experiences of my life,” said Micade Brack, a 17-year-old junior.
The students and their chaperones are now faced with deciding what to do.
“We could still go to Japan,” Alpert said. “Japan’s not closed to us, but the expense of staying in a hotel for the extra 10 days is really cost-prohibitive for a lot of the students.”
The students and their parents will meet Thursday to decide whether to resume fundraising in an effort to pay for the hotel expense for 10 days. They face the choice between raising thousands more or walking away from $10,000 worth of airline tickets.
