Book club travels to Europe
By LAURA BEHENNA
Bigfork Eagle
The Bigfork High School Book Club traveled to Europe March 15 - 25 to visit places they’d only read about. The trip abroad was English teacher Mary Fitzpatrick’s primary incentive for enticing her students to read.
“I created the book club to help them read outside of school,” she said. “I have them go on the trip so they’ll read the books. They have to earn the trip.”
Her ruse worked. When asked what inspired them to join the book club, the students roared, “The trip!”
Students must be in the club for two years before they are eligible for the 10-day adventure, Fitzpatrick said. Their first year the students choose the books they want to read. “The second year we read books about the area we’re going to visit,” she said.
This year those books included “Corelli’s Mandolin” by Louis De Bernieres, “Angels and Demons” by Dan Brown and “Pompeii” by Robert Harris. The stories took place in France, Italy and Greece, where the club’s travel itinerary took the excited students, their chaperones and a few parents who came along for fun.
“I just really love watching the kids’ eyes light up when they realize they understand something they read in a book,” Fitzpatrick said. Those moments included finding a Rome fountain mentioned in the novel “Angels and Demons” and visiting the ruins of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, destroyed in 79 A.D. when lava from Mt. Vesuvius rolled over the town.
Not all their experiences were delightful, but the students laughed in retrospect as they told their stories. Brianna Sefcak got robbed when a young man ran up to her, tied a string around her wrist and snatched 25 Euros from her.
“I told everybody not to let anybody put braid bracelets on them, but they didn’t listen to me,” Fitzpatrick said of the minor organized crime scheme.
Then there was the three-hour storm that tossed the overnight ferry from Italy to Greece, making almost everyone on board seasick.
The fun stuff made up for any tribulations, though. The teens enjoyed describing the spontaneous dance they started on the upper ferry deck, the mysterious cat that stalked the group all over Adelphi, and the protective stray dog who adopted the girls in Athens and scared off “a creepy guy” with his barking.
And in a romantic moment, “Luigi the bus driver kissed me on the lips,” Breanna Leopold exclaimed.
Fitzpatrick is considering not doing the trip again because some students couldn’t afford the $2,300 cost, and she hates to leave anyone behind. Even with fundraising events and after-school jobs, “the worst part is some students can’t pay,” she said. “They all work so hard for it; I think they all should be able to go.”