HYDE PARK — Bret Harte Elementary is trying to raise more than $40,000 by Friday to help its eighth-grade class get to Washington, D.C.
The school at 1556 E. 56th St. is trying to do as much as it can to defray the costs for 37 students to go on the annual class trip to the nation’s capital before the payment is due to the travel agency on Friday.
“My 36 students are eager and energetic to see what the world has to offer,” Principal Shenethe Parks said in a letter to parents in January. “However, 80 percent of them are considered low-income. For many of them, this would be the trip of a lifetime and their first experience traveling on a plane.”
She said the school has had more than $200,000 in budget cuts and can’t do as much as in the past to cover the cost of the trip. The school has been holding fundraisers, including selling taffy apples and chocolate, and a walk-a-thon raised more than $4,000.
The school has set up a GoFundMe page and as of Thursday morning had raised $3,508 toward its $40,000 goal.
