My eighth grade and 11th grade girls received a second invite to be involved in this program. We didn't consider the last trip because of the $5000. pricetag. This trip will be to Australia in the spring.

Just a quick question. Are their scholarship or fund raiser programs to help with the costs? Or do we have to stick them outside of Walmart in sandwich boards to sell pencils for donations? lol We are attending a meeting in Sept but I am curious.

TIA...Annie

By Kym on Tuesday, August 14, 2007 - 10:53 am:

Annie, I came on this morning to post about this, we are in AZ and got a letter this morning, it mentioned Jr High, but my daughter is in High school, looks like they offer it to high school as well.

So it's 5K?
Also, how do they get these kids names.

Sarah, I'm assuming from the thread title your child has participated?

Thanks for any info anyone has, this is my oldest child and I'm clueless! We have to travel for the meeting, so I want to get some info before I commit!

By Dancermom on Tuesday, August 14, 2007 - 11:54 am:

Did you go online and look at the website? I think it gives you basic itineraries and lots of information. Just no prices.

We are going to a meeting in Sept also.

I believe you have to be nominated to be selected. My daughter was nominated by a teacher. She's received letters before but this is the first year she is interested. But I think parents can do nominations too.

By Vicki on Tuesday, August 14, 2007 - 12:27 pm:

I didn't know you had to be nominated to get it. Dd has gotten these letters every year for as long as I can remember. She has no interest in going at all. Can't say that upsets me either. LOL I would be a wreck!!

By Janet on Tuesday, August 14, 2007 - 01:13 pm:

I've known several kids in our town that have gone...the son of a good friend of mine went to Australia, as did the son of another friend (they were in 8th grade), one of my daughter's friends went to England/Ireland, the son of one of my bank customers just got back from the England/Ireland trip.... I've heard nothing but good things about the program. My daughter is on their list and has been getting stuff from P2P for several years, but the cost is too prohibitive for us. Her name was submitted by one of my friends whose son went. It's fairly easy to get your name in, you have someone who's gone or a teacher go to the website and submit the name. You'll get an invitation to a meeting about the upcoming trip, but before the student is "in" the program, they have to be interviewed and accepted. I don't know much about that part.
If there's any way you can swing it, I think it would be a wonderful experience!

By Janet on Tuesday, August 14, 2007 - 01:15 pm:

Oh, as far as fundraising, one of my friends had a couple of bake sales at the Legion (we are a small town) for which everyone and their dog donated, plus her son had donation jars at every business, he approached the Rotary Club for donations, just let everyone know what he needed. I think they raised maybe 1/2.
One of my other friends sold baseball tickets through some program that let him keep some of the profits. So there are ways...

By My2girlygirls on Tuesday, August 14, 2007 - 02:00 pm:

Hey! Sorry it took me so long, I haven't been on today. Yes, to answer your question, P2P does have a scholarship program, we didn't apply to any of them however. One easy fundraiser we did was to write letters to the owners of local businesses and tell them who she is, where she goes to school and why she is raising money. We got over $1000 worth of donations just doing that. P2P gives the student a binder with a ton of fundraising ideas, some of which we didn't want to go through the hassle of doing but some of them were really great ideas. You could also ask local businesses to let you put a donation jar in their store. If you belong to a church that is a great place to fundraise. Courtney had such a wonderful time on her trip, she went to France, Italy and Malta for 3 weeks. It was well worth the hard work raising money with her. She used her babysitting money for her spending money (with quite a bit of extra thrown in from Mom & Dad) But by helping raise the money for the trip I think she appreciated it more. She wants to do the Australia trip next. I think she will figure out a way to raise some of the funds to go if she really wants to go! If I can answer any further questions please feel free to ask. I would love to help in anyway possible. I think it's a great program!

By Pamt on Tuesday, August 14, 2007 - 03:36 pm:

My oldest DS has gotten info on this every year for the past 2-3 years as well. I am quite an adventurous spirit without a tight leash on my kids, but he's only going into 8th grade, so that's way too young. I have been on overseas trips with kids (our youth group as an adult and as a teen) and there is WAY too much that can happen. I also think the trips are pretty overpriced, but that's probably mostly because of all of the prepackaged tours. I think it would be a good program, but I would have to tag along myself.

By My2girlygirls on Tuesday, August 14, 2007 - 04:12 pm:

P2P doesn't allow parents to go along on the trips. They have leaders that are trained to be chaperones. I worried about my dd going as any mother would but I knew that they had leaders who knew what they were doing and kept a tight reign on these kids. We had traveled as a family in Europe so I felt confident in her ability to find her way around if need be (God forbid). They really do keep the kids safe. The organization is 50 years old so they have been doing it long enough to have worked out the kinks in the program. I would absolutely let Courtney go again and she is only going into the 7th grade this year. As for the price, it does seem pricey until you start adding up the fact that it includes the airfare, on Courtney's trip that was 4 flights, accommodations, bus, ferry or train travel and 3 meals a day. They stayed in mostly 3-4 star hotels and ate at nice restaurants or had a great buffet at the hotel for dinner every night. When you start adding it all up, it's pretty reasonable. It was hard to let her go but I honestly think that she is better for having gone.