On Thursday, April 16, approximately 50 members of the Astronomy club and Fanatics for Language and Culture (FLC) club will travel by charter bus to Pittsburgh for their annual spring trip.
“We are leaving early in the morning, and we are going to the Kamin Science Center around 10 a.m.,” FLC adviser and French teacher Veronica Skomra said. “We have two shows lined up there, one regular sky show and then there’s an IMAX show as well later in the afternoon. Students will also eat lunch there. They also have the opportunity to bring lunch with them from the cafeteria if they want to do that instead if they don’t want to pay for lunch. After we’re done, we leave there at 2 p.m. We get to Sky Zone at 2:30 p.m. and students put on protection and everything when they get there, so they have from 3 – 5 p.m. to jump and have a good time over at Sky Zone.”
“I’ve heard that Sky Zone is the better Urban Air,” senior FLC club president Gabbie Beldin said. “I think a lot of people are excited for that. I remember when we were at the meeting, [Madame Skomra] had a bunch of options for the second place to go. We were always going to go to the Kamin Science Center, and the other options included the Pittsburgh Zoo and Sky Zone. Sky Zone blew them all out of the water.”
All students attending will view an immersive 3-D IMAX movie about national parks and have the option to additionally view the sky show.
“What’s nice about Kamin Science Center is they have cultural aspects, so it’s good for FLC,” Astronomy club adviser James Krug said. “They still have their special exhibit on humans colonizing Mars. They have exhibits on the International Space Station. They have their classic model railroad museum, so what’s wonderful is there is something there for everyone. The sky show is nice. They have the same system as us. It’s bigger.”
The cost is $60 per student. Spots are filled on a first come, first served basis. Students can lower the cost of attending through fundraising or volunteering at a planetarium sky show with Krug. Volunteering earns a $15 discount on the trip cost.
“It’s going to be a jam packed four hours with one wild card, and Madame [Skomra] and I didn’t even realize we did this: We ended up planning it for the same time that the NFL draft is being held in Pittsburgh,” Krug said. “When I called Kamin Science Center to finalize with them, they said, ‘Oh, just so you know, the NFL draft is [causing us to close down],’ and I was telling Madame [Skomra], my heart skipped a beat because I thought they were going to tell us, ‘you’re going to have to reschedule’ because we had already done all this paperwork and we got school board approval. But luckily, they were like, ‘well, you can still come here, but we can’t have any cars, but it’s okay to have buses.’ Oh my gosh. So it’s just this roller coaster of emotions. So it will actually be a good day. I’m a little bit worried what type of traffic we’re going to encounter on the way in, but once we get there, we should have the place to ourselves, because they are not open to the public that day. They are only open to groups that already had reservations, so if we actually can get in the building, it should very much be a bougie VIP experience.”
Skomra and Krug began preparing for the trip over two months in advance, reading invoices, collecting money, coordinating meals and organizing transportation.
“I really like giving students experiences outside of their school day that they don’t normally have,” Skomra said. “It’s just time to spend with their friends to have a good time, doing something educational.”
“It’ll just be nice and relaxing at a time when students really, absolutely need that day,” Krug said. “There will be something for everybody.”
