We woke-up at the Montana State School for the Deaf and Blind around 7:00 and readied ourselves for the day. Since we were having breakfast at the site of last night’s concert, we dressed into our alternate red t-shirt uniform, blue jeans and our hats. There was a slight chill in the thin mountain air, so we brought our grey hooded sweatshirts along as well. We made it to the church by 8:00 to eat and finished-up quickly so we could spend more time at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. We were spending part of our tour there with members of the Vacation Bible School program from the Presbyterian Church that was hosting us as well, so that was great as well.
The boys had a pretty awesome time at the Lewis and Clark Center. First, we went into the movie theatre for a short Ken Burns film on the voyage of Lewis and Clark. Since it was only us there at the time, the Park Rangers had a little quiz for the boys to see how much they knew. I think we impressed the tour guides, as they seemed pretty shocked by some of the facts the boys were pulling out of their brains.
The movie was very good. Aaron and I came away from the movie being very thankful the closest we will ever have to be to their trip is taking the Voyager Choir to Kansas City. To have to endure the hardships and inconveniences they did would be unbearable. It was interesting to see how poorly they underestimated the distance they would need to go. They figured once they reached the mouth of the Missouri River they were pretty close to the Pacific. Haha – fools. Once the boys learned it was an Army led operation though, it made perfect sense to them how we could have been off so badly. Boom!
After the film, we found the nearest rest room and commenced with bathroom break #4 of the day already – no joke. (It was only 9:45am, but in their own defense this one time, I made them each drink a bottle of water before they could go into the center.) The rest of the museum was a semi-hands on exhibit depicting many of the aspects of their journey. A guide brought the boys through the exhibits until it was time for our black powdered rifle and fire-starting demonstration.
The black-powder rifle demonstration was pretty cool. The man was dressed the part and made all the boys fall into a soldier’s formation – which was a lot tougher than it should’ve been for boys who stand in choir formation all day. He then taught them some marching and basic movements before firing the rifle (on purpose) for the boys to watch.
The fire starting demonstration was a lot cooler than it sounds. The ranger showed the boys some of the flint means of the times, then showed them the power of the magnifying glass. Each boy had a chance to try starting a fire with the magnifying glass, and to my knowledge, they all did it fairly easily. Forget the lighters and matches – hide the magnifying glasses when these boys get home!
After single-handedly stimulating the entire economy of Great Falls with our trip to the gift store, we said our “goodbyes” and made our way to Golden Corral for lunch. (Flashback: Yesterday, we had about 14.28% of the boys experience difficulties with the salad as they went through the buffet line.) In an effort to combat that, we made a “Mandatory Salad” rule for each boy, with dessert hanging in the balance. Not surprisingly, every single young man polished-off the salad of their choice with ease!
After the overwhelmingly popular (no, really!) rest period in actual beds, the boys were given the rest of the afternoon off, as long as their next letter home and their journals were done. The boys did everything from playing pool to watching some TV. Many even took the opportunity to try something fresh and new, like playing their DS’s. Pizza was delivered for dinner and afterwards the Leadership Development boys were given one of their tour activities to complete, which consisted of them learning CPR and performing it on the mannequins I provided them. To my surprise, they loved it! I wasn’t real sure how it would be received, but they took the challenge head-on and did a very good job. I was quite impressed.
After every boy took a shower, we handed-out some mail and ate sherbet ice cream before skipping-off to bed. It was a very good day!
One other thing of note: Each year, I have the option of selecting a “Junior Assistant Prefect” to join the officers if I feel there is a young man that has stepped-up and is deserving of a larger role. I don’t always select one, but this year Allexzander Sanders has done such a tremendous job that I had to ask him if he would fill that role, and he accepted. Congrats Allexzander!
Until later…
P.J.
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