Nathan Bishop Close-Up Trip to D.C.

Hi, My name is Rick Taylor. I am a History Teacher at Nathan Bishop Middle School in Providence, RI. Each year, prior to the pandemic, I have sponsored a trip to Washington, D.C. through the Close-Up Foundation. We are set to make this trip a reality for students in Providence again!

Close-Up is an immersive, civics-based, non-partisan field trip to Washington, D.C. where students get a chance to see how our government works ‘close up’. This year there are a total of 24 students from Nathan Bishop Middle School, in Providence, R.I., attending the trip, on May 1st-4th, 2022. Our students will meet their peers from around the country, visit important sites, learn how our government works, participate in Mock Congresses, and most importantly, learn the art of civil discourse!

Our school is diverse and we want that to be represented on this trip. Many of our students come from challenging socio-economic backgrounds and at $1,469 per student, several are not able to afford the cost of the trip on their own. In order to support every 8th grader who wants to attend, we have implemented an ambitious fundraising campaign. Every Friday morning at 7:15 am, the Close-Up students hold a “Cougar Café” selling hot chocolate and baked goods. A school dance is schedule for March and a yard sale is planned in April at Nathan Bishop. However, despite our best efforts, we may come up short of money necessary to make this experience a reality for our most needy students.

We know that our fundraising goal is ambitious, but with your help we know we can succeed and ensure that every student who wants to attend gets the opportunity to participate in this amazing program. A donation of any amount will get us closer to this goal!! If you feel that civics-based education is important and civil discourse is important to our democracy then DONATE NOW to the Nathan Bishop Close Up fund. Any and all donations will gladly be accepted until April 15th, 2022.

Thank You!