Jefferson County 4-H?ers travel to nation?s capitol

Two members of the Jefferson County 4-H program kicked off their summer vacation with a trip to Washington, D.C., to participate in 4-H?s Citizenship Washington Focus.

Justin Godwin of Libertyville and Rachel Shaw of Richland joined 39 4-H?ers from Iowa on the weeklong trip in mid-June. Around 300 youth from across the nation converged at the 4-H Youth Conference Center to tour the city in the morning and participate in civic workshops in the afternoon.

The students had a jam-packed week, taking in numerous presidential and war memorials, as well as Hershey?s Chocolate World, Newseum, Washington National Cathedral, National Air and Space Museum and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. They also attended a performance at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Midweek, Shaw and Godwin had the opportunity to meet with Sen. Chuck Grassley and then tour the U.S. Capitol. The students were able to ask Grassley questions about the political process and legislation currently being worked on in Congress.

  ?I enjoyed meeting with these students during their trip,? Grassley said. ?This was a nice opportunity to hear their views and answer their questions. I appreciated the students? interest in learning about how our system of government works, and I hope that this first-hand experience encourages that interest even further.?

Their tour of the Capitol was interrupted though, when a suspicious backpack caused their evacuation.

?We got to go out the front steps, which is something you don?t get to do,? Shaw said.

Godwin enjoyed seeing the city?s sights, but noted their stop at Gettysburg National Military Park as a highlight of the trip. He also found the visit to Arlington National Cemetery interesting. The students witnessed a funeral and the changing of the guards while there; they also learned the early tombstones were not all uniform as they are today.

Shaw said meeting all the students ? although Godwin was surprised by how many weren?t from farms ? from across the state and U.S. was the best part of the trip, but she also thought their stop at the United States Marine Corps Memorial, also known as the Iwo Jima Memorial, was memorable.

The son of one of the people depicted in the statue told his father?s story about the battle and the importance of the flag.

?They read off who everybody was on the monument,? Godwin said.

?Most of those people weren?t much older than us,? Shaw said.

For the complete article, see the Friday, July 23, 2010, printed edition of The Fairfield Ledger.