Wildcat Travel Club plans another journey
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Members of the Wildcat Travel Club on the 2018 Costa Rica trip.
The Wildcat Travel Club has changed the destination of their next journey. The globe-trotting educational travel club will be going to Paris and London in 2026.
The Wildcat Travel Club began in 2009; Bryan Carty, a Licking High School Science teacher, took the first group to Costa Rica. The current leader of the travel club, Suzanne Blackburn, went on the first trip with her son, Montana, and nephew, Dakota. She took over the club when Carty began teaching at Salem.
The travel club has fundraisers like raffles, dinners, craft shows, ice cream sales, RADA sales, yard sales, 5K runs and more to raise the money for the trip.
In Costa Rica in 2012, Mr. Carty’s group toured a coffee farm, visited Arenal Volcano National Park, kayaked on Lake Arenal, visited La Fortuna Waterfall, participated in a cultural exchange with locals, and visited the Arenal hot springs. In the Monteverde region, they rode horses through the mountains, experienced the thrill of ziplining through the rain forest canopy, and visited the Santa Elena Cloud Forest. On the Central Pacific Coast, they visited Manual Antonio National Park and Rainforest Adventure Park, where they rode an aerial tram above the canopies, explored a nature trail, visited a butterfly sanctuary and enjoyed a crocodile safari boat cruise.
In July 2015, Suzanne Blackburn was accompanied by one parent and five students on a trip to England and France. The travelers toured London, saw the beaches at Normandy, toured the Normandy and Brittany regions of France, then continued on to Paris for more tours.
In July 2018, Blackburn, along with two parents and five students, returned to Costa Rica. They visited a coffee farm and a pineapple farm. Ziplining, whitewater rafting, hiking, kayaking and snorkeling were among the activities enjoyed, along with other sightseeing adventures.
Their last trip was in July 2022, when the club took a World War II and the Western Front trip. Tours were taken in London, Portsmouth, Normandy, Rouen, Paris, Bastogne, Cologne, Berlin, Nuremberg, Munich and Berchtesgaden, with an emphasis on the history of these places during World War II.
The July 2026 trip to Paris and London will begin in Paris. Travelers will take tours in Paris then proceed to London, with a theater performance included in the final day of sightseeing.
An information session had been planned for Wednesday, February 19, but due to the expected winter weather, it was moved to 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 26, at St. John Catholic Church Hall on Highway 32 West. Learn what the trip is all about, how you can earn high school or college credit, affordable payment options and how to enroll. This is an incredible educational travel opportunity for students. For more information, contact Suzanne Blackburn, Group Leader, at sblackburn@licking.k12.mo.us.
