My name is Wally Hames and I teach 8th Grade American History at Kuna Middle School. Our School, along with schools from eight other States plus Washington, DC have been chosen to participate in the Ford's Theatre Oratory Competition and Celebration. In the first week in May, I will have the honor of taking two of our students to Washington, DC. These students will receive a once in a lifetime experience of reciting their original speeches on stage at Ford's Theatre where President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.
When we travel to DC we will leave around 6:00am and arrive in DC around 10:00pm. The very next morning the students and I get up around 5:00 and begin oratory and leadership workshops and then finish well into the evening. This is repeated every day we are there. On the final day, the students get up early, practice and then in front of an audience that is made up of very powerful people in DC, give their speeches onstage Since Idaho is so far away we have to leave around 6:00am the next morning. (We get a taxi to take us to the airport. We have to be there two hours early, so that means we must be ready to leave our hotel by 2:00am our time.)
The students don't get time to actually see DC. This is so sad because all the rest of the Schools get to experience it, just not our Kuna Middle School students.
I am asking for funds that would allow us to stay one,or possibly two nights in the hotel so during the day we would be able to take in places such as The Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, The US Capitol, The White House, The Library of Congress, the Smithstonians, the Holocaust Museum, etc. If we get to stay that extra day, my students would be able to meet with Idaho's Senator's and Representatives.

We are now shooting for $1,700.

Thank You,

Wally Hames
8th Grade American History Teacher
Ford's Theatre National Oratory Fellow