JERRY CITY – Heidi Meyer wants her students to see in person the battlefields she talks about in class.

Meyer, history teacher at Elmwood High School, presented to the board of education on Monday her hope to
take students on an 11-day trip to England, France and Germany to visit World War II sites.
“My plan is to do a World War II trip to Europe,” she said.
The plan is to travel in 2021 using EF Tours.
“My goal is to educate these kids on culture, on history and be able to live and see the history I talk
about in class,” Meyer said.
Other goals of the trip are to expand students’ knowledge of the world around them, help them discover
themselves and grow more independent, and help them understand new cultures.
“I want to expose them to all the things I teach them,” Meyer said.
The tentative 11-day agenda includes flying out of Detroit Metro to London where they will visit the
Imperial War Museum and Churchill’s War Cabinet, plus the Houses of Parliament and St. Paul’s Cathedral,
which escaped damage during the Blitz.
The tour will cross the English Channel by ferry to Normandy where they will walk of the beach made
famous during D-Day, visit the Normandy American Cemetery, the Caen Memorial and the Utah Beach Museum.

The tentative itinerary calls for a cultural visit to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris as well as the Arc de
Triomphe, Eiffel Tower and Versailles.
After a train ride to Berlin, students will visit the Topography of Terror Museum, built on the grounds
of the Gestapo and SS headquarters. The tour also includes a stop at the Brandenburg Gate and the
remains of the Berlin Wall.
Meyer said that she is trying to add a trip to Sachsenhausen concentration camp outside Berlin.
”I really think it’s important to go there,” she said.
That stop would add an extra day to the trip.
The all-inclusive trip will tentatively cost $4,444 per student and $4,994 per adult.
The trip is open to high school students, so this year’s seventh-graders would be freshmen and be allowed
to go.
Meyer said she is willing to offer the trip to community members “if they are willing to follow my
rules.”
She is looking for dates in July, but dates have not been locked in.
Board member Debbie Reynolds wanted to know how many students took the tour with Meyer five years ago.

Meyer said eight students traveled. She was the only chaperone on that trip.
She is not planning any fundraisers and is leaving it to the kids to raise the funds.
“If they want to do it, they have two years to work during the summer, or to figure out how they’re going
to make it happen.”
The board approved the trip.
The Spanish Club is taking a trip this summer, and the plan is for staff to take a trip every two or
three years.