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Mrs. Wattonville goes to Washington
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Posted by mlfulton Fri Apr 30, 2004 19:14:00 PDT
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0 responses 0 comments Over spring break, I and another teacher took 85 Freedom Middle School students to Washington, D.C., and New York City. At the same time, my daughter, Bree Wattonville, who goes to school at Rosedale Middle, our sister middle school in the district, also went with a group of 45 students to Washington, D.C.

It was a wonderful, exciting time for both of us, but my daughter and I kept missing each other in a random kind of way. We were hoping to see each other during our time back East, but it just didn't work out. Her group visited the capital just as our group was leaving. We were at the Smithsonian at the same time, but I was unable to find her. I had a cell phone, but she didn't. She visited the Pentagon Mall two hours after our group.

The only time I was able to connect with Bree was when I visited the Viet Nam Memorial. I found the report that she had written on a young captain, Lieutenant Charles Duffy Black, who had died during the war, and I had two students help make an imprint of the name of the young man. Later, I found out that my daughter wasn't able to do this as his name was on line 19, which was two-people high. One of my students had to stand on another student's shoulders to make the imprint of the young man's name.

So that was the only connection we were able to make with each other. The young man will never know that he helped us make a special connection on our trip to Washington -- a trip that was made to see firsthand our country's symbols of freedom.

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