Worland AP U.S. History students make a historic trip

By TOBIAS MOWERY

Staff Reporter

WORLAND – Despite having visited there multiple times, Worland High School (WHS) guidance counselor and AP United States history teacher Randy Durr has yet to tire of his trips to Washington, D.C. This includes the annual trips he takes his senior class on in which they tour national landmarks that they’ve previously only heard about.

This year was Durr’s 14th time taking students on the Washington trip but 24th time going in general. After not being able to go in 2020 due to COVID-19, Durr said he felt fortunate that they had little to no complications when it came to traveling this year.

Durr brought along 21 students and female chaperone Andrea Bilodeau on the trip.

The first day in Washington, their itinerary took them to the White House, Ford’s Theatre, Smithsonian area, Washington Monument, a World War II memorial, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and to a Washington Nationals vs. Boston Red Sox game. The second day, they departed from the hotel to visit Arlington Cemetery.

Afterwards, they walked across the Potomac River Bridge to the Lincoln Memorial. They then had dinner at Pentagon City Mall. Their third day included them going to Georgetown, meeting with U.S. Senator John Barrasso, (R-Wyoming) and visiting the United States Holocaust Museum. Their fourth day, they took a Segway tour and had lunch in downtown Washington. They then attended the Museum of American History and did paddleboats at the Tidal Basin before having lunch at O’Connell’s Irish Pub. The fifth day took them on a tour of Mount Vernon and the Library of Congress. Their final full day in Washington was a museum day. The following morning they spent free time in Washington before their departure.

What made this trip extra special for everyone is that, according to Durr, this was the first trip they took in autumn, the others usually having been taken in the spring time. Durr explained that he felt it would be more fun to hit fall activities instead of spring ones, there would be more moderate weather and less people there.

“I liked all the monuments, they were cool,” said Daniela Gaytan. “It was cool to see all the places that we’ve only seen on TV.”

“I really liked going to Arlington Cemetery,” Carley Yule added. “I just thought it as super humbling and unique to look at.”

“It was really fun. It was really crazy. We study about this stuff, then we get to see it, it was really crazy,” Braelyn Robertson said.

“People ask me often, ‘Gee, don’t you get bored? You’ve been there 24 times,’” Durr said. “The reason I like going – I don’t need to go to Washington, D.C. again I’ve been there 24 times, but what I like is the students. I like to see the students’ reactions to going to Washington D.C. as none of them, if any of them, have ever been there before. And if they’ve been there, they don’t get the detail that we do. But just the opportunity that those kids get to get out of Worland, Wyoming, get into a big city, develop the confidence of ‘hey, you know what? I can go to a big city and figure it out and travel, I can be independent. I have confidence that when I get out of high school I can live in the real world,’ so to speak. That’s what I enjoy about it. I certainly enjoy the opportunity for the kids to learn about periods of history and persons of history and then go see it firsthand,” he explained.

He added, “Seeing what they learned is invaluable.”