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I am humbly submitting a request for my fellow dopers to look at a Go Fund Me page set up for my daughter. If you have a few bucks to spare and can throw her way it would be much appreciated. The Go Fund Me page is pretty generic in that it does not list a whole lot about my daughter so I will try my best to give you guys a little back ground about her and this trip.
Emily: A 14 year old freshman who works hard at being an all-around good person. Academically, she strives to maintain good grades (she currently has a 4.0 with two trimesters of high school completed and one semester of a high school credit class she took in junior high) while always being willing to help others. I have witnessed her helping classmates with concepts they were not quiet understanding and explaining how to find the answers on their own rather than letting others copy her work. Emily participates in many extra-curricular activities. She runs cross country and plays basketball (this spring, she opted not to go out for track so she could work more to pay for this trip). Other school sponsored activities she participates in include marching band in the fall, concert band in the winter, various band contests, student council, FFA (Future Farmers of America), and Skills USA (participating in baking competitions), and Art Club. She has a part time job at a local grocery store as a carry out. She works on Saturdays and for a few hours after school when scheduled. Per Iowa laws and the store she works for, she is never scheduled after 6:30 pm which means on week nights the most she can work is 2.5 hours, the longest shift she can work on a Saturday is 6 hours (the store is closed on Sundays). Now, in reading all of that, you might that Emily is a busy girl – she is but she still makes time for community service - she has since the beginning of this school year documented over 60 volunteerism hours. A big part of those come from working with youth in our town, helping to build sets and running lights for play productions at her high school and raking leaves for elderly people in our community. In two weekends, she will be helping at a soup supper fundraiser for community sponsored events. She is someone who will grow up to make an impact on this world. I could not be more proud of her and all that she has done.
If you have clicked the go fund me link, you will see that my son was able to take a Europe trip last year; he was able to finance most of the trip on his own by working three jobs over the summer and two during the school year. Emily does not have that luxury due to her age. As a family, we cannot help her out as much as we did Kyle because we are helping Kyle with college expenses as well as having another child starting college in the fall of 2015. (Kids… man they are expensive to educate!!)
The trip: June 6- June 22
Fly out of Des Moines to Munich, Germany spend two and a half days in Germany with visits to Frauenkirche, Neues Rathaus, Hofbrauhaus, Olympic Stadium, Residenz, Marienplatz, and Dachau.
Next they will travel to Venice; while they are there the students will tour St. Mark’s Square, Grand Canal, visit Doge’s Palace and view a glass blowing demonstration.
After Venice, Emily will travel to Rome where there are so many things to do – including taking a guided tour of Vatican City, visiting the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica, the Colosseum, the Roman Forum. The students will take a self-guided walking tour that will lead them by Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Piazza Navona, and the Spanish Steps. As a group, they will make the decision when they are in Rome to either take a cooking class or use that time to explore on their own (in small groups).
From Rome they will move on to Florence via Assisi. Once in Florence, the group will see the Piazza della Signoria, Ponte Vecchio, Chiesa di Santa Croce, the Gates of Paradise, and finally they will visit the Duomo. While in Florence, Emily and her group will be watching a leather making demonstration.
Once their visit in Florence is complete, they will travel to the Lucerne region where they will visit Lion Monument and Chapel Bridge. Additionally, they will ride the Pilatus cog railway to the top of Mount Pilatus. They will then travel to Burgundy and tour Dijon.
Paris is the next stop on this amazing adventure. While in Paris, Emily will visit Notre Dame Cathedral. In other tours she will see Ile de la Cite, Conciergerie, Palace de la Concorde, Champs- Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, Les Invalides, and the Eiffel Tower.
The final destination of this trip is London. Sites that will be visited in London are The Strand, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, Convent Garden, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, Piccadilly Circus, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and Westminster Abbey. Emily will have the opportunity to watch the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.
As you can see, this is really a unique opportunity for her and I really hope that it will be one that she can look back on and reflect on how traveling and viewing other cultures and reflecting on all the she has seen as a positive motivator for her and her future.
Thanks again for reading through this- if you have any questions about Emily or the trip feel free to ask them and I will answer them to the best of my ability. Again, I appreciate your time and consideration of Emily and this adventure!