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Date: 4/4/2023
LUDLOW — The Baird Middle School Travel Club hopes to provide students with the opportunity to travel and explore.
The Travel Club was started in 2013 by seventh grade geography teacher Anna Baboval after she said she was fortunate enough to travel in sixth, eighth, 10th and 12th grade with her French class.
The Travel Club is open to seventh and eighth grade students but allows sixth grade students to sign up since the trip is planned a year in advance.
The club has traveled to Washington, D.C., multiple times, including for the 2017 presidential inauguration, London, Iceland, and most recently Canada, in April 2019
“I think for many Ludlow students, they have not experienced a lot out of town, and it gives them the opportunity to participate in the global community. We are in a more globalized society. Things are faster, things are more interconnected, and it allows them to experience that first hand,” Baboval said.
She added, “When I began teaching and came to Baird, there was no established travel program and I wanted to bring that opportunity to the students here.”
In 2013, the club started with a group of 10 students taking the first tour to Washington, D.C., and Baboval said it took off from there.
The trip would continue in 2015 and 2017 before the Washington, D.C., tour become an eighth grade trip, making the travel club an international tour based club.
In 2018 the club traveled to Iceland and in 2019, the travel club took a trip to Montreal and Quebec, Canada and had plans in 2020, 2021 and 2022 to travel elsewhere before the coronavirus pandemic canceled those trips.
For the first time in three years, the travel club will be taking a trip to Washington, D.C., from April 19-22 and are also booked for a trip to London in April 2024.
The plans for the Washington, D.C., tour include a visit to the Air and Space Museum, George Washington’s home in Mount Vernon, Virginia, the Supreme Court, the Capitol building, the tour of war memorials, the Holocaust museum, a wreath laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery and the Natural Museum of African American History and Culture.
Baboval said, “This is the 10 year anniversary of the club, so it is nice to go back to Washington D.C. and visit some things that were not there the last time. There will be four busy days.”
Not only are the tours educational, Baboval thinks the trip can help develop important life skills.
“Traveling independently is a totally different ballgame. When you travel with your family, parents are getting you through airport security or they are packing your bag. When you are more on your own with some chaperone supervision, there is a level if independence that develops for those students,” Baboval added.
She said she seen the difference in a few students organization and sufficiency skills before and after taking a trip with the club.
Baboval said she did not know how the new superintendent and building principal would react to idea of travel club starting again after the coronavirus pandemic but mentioned how they were supportive of the idea.
The club has not been able to travel since 2019 but the Ludlow School Committee approved the two trips at its October 2022 meeting.
Baboval said that there were 26 students ready to go on a trip to Rome and Pompei “before the world got shut down.”
She added, “I launched the trip for this year and next year to parents and within 48 hours both tours were filled. The excitement and the energy are there from parents and students.”
The Washington, D.C., trip will include 54 people and the London trip has 26.
Parents have the choice to fund these trips if they can but the Travel Club also puts on multiple fundraisers to provide scholarship funding for the trips.
Baboval said the scholarship money is offered to those families who would not be able to afford the trip otherwise and there has already been $1,500 awarded between the two upcoming tours.
The Travel Club puts on “family fun” events in the spring and fall to raise money along with direct fund sales.
Fundraisers so far included a Boon Supply Co. item sale, a Bounce Trampoline Park night, a Travel Club night at a Springfield Thunderbirds game and a Monson’s Chocolates fundraiser.
The next fundraiser is a Travel Club night at a Boston Red Sox on Friday, June 2 against Tampa Bay Rays.
The ticket location is Right Field Box 92 or Bleachers 35, for $42 or $62 per person.
Tickets can be purchased online at www.fevogm.com/event/Baird2023 and is open to the community and is on a first-come, first-served basis through April 7 at 11:59 p.m.
Baboval’s dedication to the students has not gone unnoticed and was recognized at the Springfield Thunderbirds game by receiving CHD Game Changer Award for her work with the Travel Club.
The award is given to people who make a positive impact in the community and Baboval said she was shocked to win the award but appreciative.
For more information on the Travel Club, visit bmstravelclub.weebly.com.