My son was nominated by his teacher last year for this program and he was all excited about going on a trip to Washington DC for spring break this year. He is a great kid with perfect 4.0 grades so it did not surprise us. What did surprise us was the cost of this trip. My husband and I decided to spend all of our families vacation money for this year so our son could have this wonderful experience. This was the only way we could afford this because we are not wealthy people.
I have been uncomfortable with this idea because my son is only 12 years old and he would be 3000 miles from home with people I had never met. Everyone thought it was because I am overprotective and so I consented even though I was still uneasy. I have been researching this company and found out that you can nominate your own child if you want them to go, and that this is a for profit company. So much for the great honor! How deceptive.
I was still going to let him go until I saw the posting on your website about the boy who died on a trip with this group last summer. I did some research and found out that this is a true story and that his family has filed a lawsuit against this organization. I do not know who was at fault here, but I do know that the lost life of even one precious child is too many. I have pulled my son from the program. Unfortunatley for us the story did not post until 2/1/08 and the cutoff date for us to get our money back was 1/31/08. We called on 2/2 and canceled our son's trip. We were told that we were not going to get our money back. I am glad I had only sent them half of the money, but there is still no price that can be put on the safety of my children.
I guess we are going camping this year for vacation.
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