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Pandemic precautions disrupt Europe trip, could wipe out last months of high school for Grade 12s

An educational field trip to Europe was supposed to be the last big high school milestone for Jaiden Crocker before prom and, finally, graduation. But now, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, all those plans are up in the air.
legion donation europe trip
In February, the Legion Ladies Auxiliary made a donation to a group of R.D. Parker Collegiate students who were supposed to go on an educational field trip to Europe in May, but now the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted those plans.

An educational field trip to Europe was supposed to be the last big high school milestone for Jaiden Crocker before prom and, finally, graduation.

But now, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, all those plans are up in the air.

Crocker, who is in Grade 12, signed up last spring for a trip to Europe with EF Educational Tours Canada. She and fellow classmates were supposed to take part in celebrations of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands from Nazi occupation and visit other significant First World War and Second World War sites in Belgium and France, including Anne Frank House and Vimy Ridge and the farm where Canadian Lt. Col. John McCrae wrote “In Flanders Field.”

But as the novel coronavirus spread to dozens of countries, including Canada, that trip was postponed.

“In plain terms, I was pretty upset” when she was informed in mid-March that the tour wouldn’t be going ahead as planned, says Crocker. The news came shortly after the final payment was made for the tour, which cost around $5,000 per student.

In addition to cash payments, Crocker and other students who were going on the trip had spent many hours fundraising by selling food items and running the canteen and 50-50 draws during Royal Canadian Legion bingo nights last spring and since the beginning of the current school year.

“I did it like every week,” Crocker says. 

In an FAQ section of the EF Educational Tours Canada website, the company said it is working with groups who planned to travel in 2020 to change the dates of those tours, amend an existing itinerary or change to a different tour, or arrange for each traveller to receive a future travel voucher. Vouchers can be used for EF’s educational tours, as well as for tours for high school graduates, gap year tours, language schools, cultural tours or group travel for 18- to 29-year-olds. Vouchers are transferable, so they can be sold or transferred to a family member or someone else in the same school or community. They are issued in the amount of all the money paid by a traveller for their originally scheduled tour, minus a $199 non-refundable deposit and any additional non-refundable fees, such as the cost of the Global Travel Protection Plan, if it was purchased.

“We are continuing to work with our groups, their schools, and individual families to provide flexible options for tours that have already been booked, including extending our Peace of Mind program to all tours no matter how close they are to their departure date; and to ensure that everyone feels safe as they select a modified option that works best,” said EF Educational Tours Canada in an emailed response to an inquiry from the Thompson Citizen regarding the reason the website said that only future travel vouchers and not refunds would be provided to participants whose scheduled trips were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. “Our Peace of Mind program allows groups to change their itinerary, destination, or departure date or take a transferable voucher, which can be used for any tours in the EF family of programs or at EF’s International Language Campuses.”

EF Educational Tours Canada also said that if a group, its leader, a school or a school board cancelled a tour scheduled with the company, that travellers who purchased travel insurance may be able to make insurance claims.

An RDPC teacher involved with the tour who the Citizen reached out to last week got in touch after the original version of this article was published online and said students and their parents were given the option of future travel vouchers or refunds and that some have already received their money back.

Not getting to go on this tour is only one part of the larger disruption facing all students in Manitoba, though it is especially concerning to those who were in their last four months of high school.

“We went to school our whole life just to walk across the stage and we might not even be able to get to do that,” said Crocker, who came to Thompson when she was in Grade 5 and is supposed to start classes at the University of Manitoba in September.

Although school in the province was originally suspended until April 10, the education minister said March 31 that it is now suspended indefinitely, which could affect graduation and prom.

“A bunch of girls I know already have their dresses,” said Crocker. “They already have these dresses and we might not even get to wear them. We don’t know if we’re going to see the people that we’ve been going to school with our whole lives. I just hope that everything gets under control and it doesn’t get worse here and that we can go back to school and finish off our senior year the way that it should have been.”

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