Earlier this year a group of fifth grade students from Brook Hill Elementary in Santa Rosa took a field trip to the Santa Rosa Junior College planetarium. Sounds like a nice little jaunt across town—except the fact that they had to walk half way there and then take a city bus the rest of the way.
Over 30 students and chaperones walked a mile and a half to the downtown transit mall to then catch a bus—and have each child pay for his own ticket¬—for a three minute ride the rest of the way to SRJC. Why did they do this? Because it was less than half the cost of reserving a school bus for the whole trip.
The Sonoma County Museum is looking to defray those transportation costs, at least for trips to the museum, for all Sonoma County students. The museum started a Razoo campaign to raise funds for the upcoming school year. Over 3,000 students took advantage of the free transportation and tours at the museum last year, which wiped out the program’s funding. School bus trips cost between $175 and $250 for a round trip, and the museum hopes to have enough money to show off its Day of the Dead Altars and SFMOMA Mexican Photography exhibitions, especially considering the large number of Hispanic students in the county, says the museum.
The funding campaign ends September 8, and the minimum donation is $10. Think of walking two miles to catch a city bus with a group of fifth graders, then go and donate.
