By Carlee Lammers
Round Table editor
Twenty Danish students and their teachers will be arriving in the Middletown area on Oct. 3 to share knowledge of their homeland and learn a little about this one.
Several Middletown High school students and their families will be serving as hosts to the Danish students. On the first day, the host families and their guests will spend time together doing different activities as a family.
Then the group will take a trip to Gettysburg, Pa., where MHS social studies teacher Stephen Slaughter will serve as the tour guide for the day.
The Danish students will be giving presentations to MHS students on Oct. 6 on subjects ranging from life in Denmark to the historical buildings in their home town of Soderburgh. MHS students whose teachers signed up to see a presentation will be given a chance to go see one at some point during the day.
The following day the Danish students will follow the school schedule of their host siblings.
After their stay in the Middletown community, the Danish students and their teachers will travel to Washington, D.C., to see “museums and monuments,” said MHS Assistant Principal Donna Clabaugh, who is in charge of coordinating the Danish students’ visit.
Clabaugh said the Danish students have been coming to MHS the exact same week for three years now because it “coincides with their school break.”
In past years MHS has planned a trip over the summer to travel to Denmark. Last year a trip was planned, but there wasn’t enough time available to experience the country properly. Clabaugh said that MHS students could have gone during Easter break; however, that would not have allowed for enough time to do all of the planned activities and still get back to Middletown before school started.
“In Europe schools are just different,” said Clabaugh.
This year since school is ending earlier than the past three years, there is a trip planned that would allow MHS students to go visit the Danish students while they are still in school.
Clabaugh said that she is “really excited about the number of students participating this year.”
Any MHS students interested in traveling to Denmark, or wishing to serve as a host next year should contact Clabaugh.
