St. Mary's featured in Field Trip TV show

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
May 31, 2007

STORM LAKE - One classroom at St. Mary School in Storm Lake received a new look on May 24.

A television crew from the show Field Trip surprised students at St. Mary's with the news that the fifth and sixth graders would be going on a field trip. While the students were gone, a classroom was remodeled and other changes were made to the school.

According to Bill Brown, creator and producer of the show, Field Trip is a statewide show in Iowa that receives applications from kindergarten through sixth grades. The schools are chosen at random through a drawing to receive a field trip along with needed items for their school.

"The teachers list the top ten places they would like to take their students on a field trip but might not do so because they are most expensive," said Brown. "On the other half of the application, the school lists what their immediate needs are - computers, flooring, complete remodel of a room, anything."

Brown mentioned that the idea for Field Trip came about when his daughter's class was in need of a field trip. He presented the idea to Dashboard Productions and it was accepted.

The show taped at St. Mary's was fourth in series of five that will air on Mediacom's Connections Channel 22.

St. Mary's was chosen and awarded with the items listed on their application. The classroom that was remodeled now has a stage, a puppet show area, lighting, a curtain donated by the theater department at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake and much more.

"A vision that we have at St. Mary's is we want to create a program of fine arts and public speaking because these are skills that the children will need to possess to be successful in the public," said Bev Mach, principal at St. Mary's. "We have a very talented group of teachers on staff right now that are well versed in that."

Mach noted that the remodeled room will remain a classroom but will also be available for everyone in the school to use. The students will be able to get stage experience.

"The school also needed some new computers, so we brought in an IT guy," said Brown.

All of the old computers at the school were assessed to see if they were salvageable and seven were fixed. The show also gave the school 10 new laptops and rewired the school to be wireless.

The janitor, Doug, at St. Mary's recently discovered that he has a talent for drawing and the Field Trip team found this out. The team gave him a year's supply of pastels, charcoal, sketchpads, canvas, oil paints, etc.

In the hallway of both levels of the school, a racing stripe was painted on the wall. The colors were blue and gold for Notre Dame because Sister Donna Determan at St. Mary's is a big fan, noted Brown. "Pray like a champion" along with other statements were also painted on the wall.

"We try to do everything in one day," said Brown. "When the episode is over and the bus rolls away, the volunteers will walk into that room and say, 'that is the room that I did.'"

All of the people that helped throughout the day were volunteers from the St. Mary's and Storm Lake communities.

One volunteer, Kay Broich, helped by running errands, hauling items out of the classrooms, cleaning, etc. She has children that are students at St. Mary's including a junior, sixth grader and third grader.

"We are a St. Mary's family and St. Mary's is run by volunteers," said Broich. "It was important that we be here and help with this wonderful event. We can't thank the people who are putting this on enough. It is going to be a wonderful opportunity for our children and their education."

During the field trip, the fifth and sixth graders were able to visit the 185th Air Refueling Wing of the Iowa Air National Guard in Sioux City as well as Wells Blue Bunny in Le Mars. Kum and Go, one of the sponsors for the day, provided a meal for the students.

At Wells Blue Bunny, the students received a tour of the plant, met a relative of the man who started Wells and tasted samples of ice cream.

Hannah Sitzmann, a fifth grade student, thought the field trip was "pretty cool." Her favorite part was getting to know "more about how Blue Bunny became what it is today and going inside the airplanes."

"It was a lot of fun," said Sitzmann.

Sixth grader Danny Pedersen thought the field trip was fun and was excited to find out where they were going to go. He liked going to Blue Bunny, getting to go on a tour and receiving free ice cream.

The students were not able to see the final product at the school when they returned because the classroom was not complete until later in the evening.

"It was an awesome day," said Mach. "It was a true blessing. At the beginning of the year, I didn't want to ask God for anything because I do think he provides what we need. He was here and it was evident in the halls of St. Mary's."