The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

As the final payment for the Belize Marine Ecology trip is coming up, all the participants are wrapping up their fundraisers and reaching their payment goal. There is a total of twelve kids going on the trip: Hunter Snapp, Bailey Gasvoda, Clint Darlington, Tyler Schwartzbach, Jeremiah Genereux, Stacey Allderdice, Madison Terry, Cameron Schwartzbach, Brady Pleninger, Dillin Geyer, myself (Alicia Bjornestad), and Jozlyn Baumann. They all have been working hard by doing personal and group fundraising to reach their goal.

The last payment deadline was on January eighth. All the kids got their paperwork done and sent and should have their passports. The final payment is due April eighth. So, the kids have about two and a half months to obtain all their money.

The parents of all the kids have also been working really hard. The parents go to meetings and talk about fundraising ideas, while also having social media group-chats about the information each family will need. Melanie Schwartzbach, who has two kids going on the trip, is working very hard as the group contact leader by informing all the parents and helping organize fundraisers. This trip won’t be her first group of kids she has taken. Two years ago, she was a group contact for a Costa Rica trip organized by the same foundation and that trip was very successful. Each family is doing lots to raise all the money so their kid, or kids, can go on this trip and have an amazing experience.

Another fundraiser all the kids have been working on for the past couple of months is the cooler raffle tickets. The prize is a Yeti Tundra sixty-five-quart cooler and a fifty-dollar Scheels gift card. The tickets are being sold at ten dollars a ticket or twenty-five dollars for three tickets. The tickets can be sold to anyone, one the ticket will be the name and phone number of the buyer. The drawing will be held on February 8th at Big Sandy High School at the last home game of the basketball season.

As all the kids and parents work hard to gain their goal, they are getting very excited about the trip. Go buy a raffle ticket to help the kids raise the money and possibly win a Yeti cooler and Scheel’s gift card! Hopefully, all the kids will reach their goal before the deadline.