Students Fight for a Field Trip

At Grand Terrace Elementary School, 99 fourth grade students fund raised $2,000 between December 2013-February 2014 so that they could go on an educational field trip to the San Juan Capistrano Mission on May 20th. One parent, Stephanie Sadler, took the initiative to begin the push for fundraising. She enlisted the help of two parents to start the fundraising campaigns. The students took it upon themselves to fund raise by having a read-a-thon, after-school snack sale, and selling candy grams to family members and the community for Christmas and Valentine’s Day. Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) president Norma Benitez-Rocha, who works for the Colton Joint Unified School District (CJUSD) as a noon-aide for the school became involved on the campus five years ago after being encouraged by her sister-in-law to join the PTO. She held the position as secretary first before becoming president. Benitez-Rocha’s son and daughter also went to Grand Terrace Elementary School before moving onto to middle and high school. Benitez-Rocha says, "each year the fourth grade students study missions, and a lot of them build missions as projects, but this field trip will take them to see the Missions built during the 1880s.” She continues that the students will, “visit the Missions to give them that culture and background, and what the people would take refuge in, a lot of students aren’t able to get out and experience these things first hand before going on the field trips. Whether it’s due to money or time they are not able to get out, going on field trips gives them that opportunity.” With their determination and hard work, students at Grand Terrace Elementary school demonstrated that working together to achieve a goal can be a success.