The Sophomores’ Adventure Around Kansas City

The sophomores began their day at an orchard in Kansas City. This tradition started about seven years ago when Barstow students planted the first trees in this orchard. It is located in the center of a working-class neighborhood and is visited by hundreds of people each day. The sophomores split up into four groups, each group performing different activities around the orchard. One group plowed the grass around the trees while another group brought mulch and dumped it around the trees. Then, another group spread out the mulch and did this for every tree. While this was happening in one section of the orchard, the other group of sophomores were clearing out weeds to make space for more fruits and vegetables in the other section. This was a fun and new experience for most of the sophomores and was also beneficial since helping out in the orchard gives everyone two hours of community service. After about two hours of hard work, the sophomores broke up into two buses and headed to either Crown Center or River Market to grab lunch.  

Bus One, led by Mrs. Guldin, Mr. Holmes, Mr. Luce, and Mr. Dembinski made its way to Crown Center. Surrounded by other favorable attractions such as Legoland and SeaLife, the sophomores were given one hour to eat and check out the stores which disappointed a lot of the students. Whether they felt like BBQ, a burger, pizza, or tacos, there was a restaurant for every taste at Crown Center. While eating lunch, the sophomores made sure they left some room for candy at Chip’s Candy Factory and ice cream from Sheridan’s. With their spare time, the sophomores walked around and checked out the stores that filled Crown Center. Afterward, they joined the teachers and made their way to Union Station for Breakout KC.

Although the River market is a popular destination for many people, the reason for the sophomores’ trip was strictly business. The Sophomores had approximately one hour to get lunch and look around the market. Some popular places were Chicken Please, a southern-style fried chicken restaurant, Dragonfly Tea Zone, an Asian boba tea place, and KC Soda Co., a Kansas City-based soda company specializing in odd and unusual sodas. After the hour was up, Sophomores on Bus Two boarded the bus and headed over to Escape Room KC for the second-to-last event of the day.

After all of the Sophomores finished eating at the River Market and Crown Center, they were broken into groups. Mr. Thurman’s, Ms. Foster’s, and Mr. Wood’s groups all went to the Breakout KC located in North of Downtown Kansas City and Mr. Dembinski’s, Mr. Holmes’s, Mr. Luce’s, and Mrs. Guldin’s groups went to the Union Station location of Breakout KC. The students were then separated into different rooms where the objective was to overcome challenging obstacles and search for clues to figure out a code that would open the door to the room they are locked in. The challenging part about escape rooms is that participants are given exactly one hour to break out of the room and luckily, all of the groups were able to escape within the hour. Afterward, the Sophomores then went back to Barstow where they were greeted by the freshmen. 

Once the sophomores arrived at Barstow, they formed a circle with the incoming freshmen where the grades intermingled by casually talking. Afterward, they migrated to the cafeteria where they enjoyed a dinner of pizza and soda. After savoring the scrumptious meal, Ms. Zimmerman formed groups with both sophomores and freshmen where they further discussed topics such as advice, concerns, and interesting stories from the perspectives of sophomores when they were freshmen. We ended the night by mingling in Varsity gym, Brookfield gym and the cafeteria. 

Overall, the experience was an intensive bonding experience which brought the sophomore class closer together in a new and exciting way. We feel that the retreat day is an important tool to bring students and teachers closer together as well as a unique way for sophomores to help integrate freshmen into high school.