Junior and senior students at Christian Heritage Academy provided staffing for the Day Out With Thomas event to raise funds for their annual trip to Boston.
At Oklahoma Railway Museum’s largest event of the year, the students operated activity stations and assisted museum staff benefiting both parties.
Harry Currie, director at large for the museum, has been connected with CHA for many years and even has grandchildren who attend the school. Currie saw a possibility to help the students defer the cost of their capstone trip to Boston, while helping the museum with the staffing task at the same time.
In 2004, CHA staffed the event for the first time and has continued every year since.
Day Out With Thomas is held annually at ORM the last weekend in September and the first weekend in October. Train rides with Thomas the Tank Engine are offered every 50 minutes from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Many activities are provided for visitors at no cost such as meeting Sir Topham Hatt, temporary tattoos and story time. Admission to the museum is always free.
The senior trip for students at CHA was described as a required culmination experience of the educational curriculum and to provide a tangible context to the student by David Holmes, secondary headmaster for the school.
For 10 days every spring, the senior class visits Plymouth and Boston and travels to see historic sites and memorials surrounding Boston. They also take in a Red Sox game, experience the Boston Pops and visit Cape Cod.
Students staffing the Thomas event on Saturday, Sept. 29 were excited for both the opportunity to serve the visitors to the museum, as well as the promise of the trip they will attend in the spring.
"This is one of my favorite stations because you get to meet the kids and talk about the trains," Ashlen Beavers said as she placed a sticker on a child’s hand at the temporary tattoos booth.
Kayleigh Johnson discussed playing the part of Sir Topham Hatt.
"It’s hard to see them," Johnson said of the children, referring to the limited visibility while wearing the suit. "But I get to hug them, they hold out their little arms and I’m like, ‘oh, my gosh!’"
Day out with Thomas will be at the Oklahoma Railway Museum this weekend, Oct. 5 through Oct. 7 with Christian Heritage Academy students staffing the event.
