Good morning,

I finally went on my first WMS trip to Washington, D.C.! I have been fortunate enough to have traveled all over the world (Africa, Asia and Europe), but had never set foot in D.C. Needless to say, I was excited to finally see the monuments, the memorials, and the famous buildings that I had studied and learned about as a student and a teacher. You know, the White House is actually quite small!

It was a cold and damp Monday morning, around 6:20, as 217 8th graders and 34 staff members boarded 3 ½ Amtrak trains bound for Washington, D.C. We were off for an adventure packed 4 day excursion to our Nation’s capital. As was foretold, students nestled in for the long 8 hour journey and began taking out mega-sized bags of Mike and Ike’s, Laffy Taffy, Twizzlers, and many other wonderful treats for breakfast. How else we were expected to make it through this marathon of a ride? Shockingly, we arrived at Union Station before we knew it.

At this point, 5 buses of students and staff disembarked on separate journeys. Over the next three and a half days, our bus group would have many many wonderful, meaningful once in a lifetime experiences. We visited all of the following memorials: WWII, Korea, Vietnam, 9/11 Pentagon, Air Force, Marine Corp, FDR, Jefferson, Japanese Internment, Iwo Jima and Lincoln. That’s ELEVEN memorials! Clearly enough to get some good ideas for their memorial project!

We saw the Capitol building and the White House. We visited the Museum of American History, the Smithsonian Zoo, and the Holocaust Museum. We even took in a ballgame at the Nationals stadium.

One of the most impactful events for me was visiting Arlington National Cemetery. We were honored, through a connection made by Mr. Battaglia, to visit the gravesite of Matthew Pucino. Staff Sergeant Pucino was a US Special Forces Soldier who was killed in Afghanistan on November 23rd, 2009. He was from Plymouth, Massachusetts. Students got to hear from some of Matthew’s teammates, Jeffery Caudill and Kevin Sherwood. They spoke of the kind of person and leader he was and why it was important to continue to remember him. I felt that we were fortunate to have been able to make a connection to someone this way and our students will remember this forever. We then were witness to the changing of the guard at the Tomb of Unknown Soldier and four of our students represented themselves and their school superbly during a wreath laying ceremony.

For the last night in the big city, all the students got dressed up for a wonderful dinner and evening social. We were treated to a great buffet, and then saw some amazing moves on the dance floor by Mr. Rivera. The next morning, our students heard from Sarah Hurwitz, a former Wayland resident and student. She spoke about her job as speechwriter for Michelle Obama and had a great question and answer session with our students. 

All good things come to end they say. Packed up and ready to go, we headed back to Union Station for the journey home to Massachusetts. After arriving in Canton, one of the Amtrak workers remarked that they had never seen 251 people leave the train station in 20 minutes!

Thank you to our wonderful House Leaders: Mr. Reddington, Mr. Farley, Mr. Battaglia, and Ms. McDonald. Thank you to the staff for leading this adventurous group through the city, leaving their families behind for four days. This a trip that our students will never forget!

Warm regards,

George