GREENWOOD — The Telstar Freshman Academy will host a dinner this week to raise money for a spring trip to Washington, D.C.

The dinner is set from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10, at Jackson Silver Post 68 American Legion Hall, 595 Gore Road.

The first trip was last year, and Norman Greenburg said the idea was born out of a desire to broaden students’ horizons.

“When envisioning the Telstar Freshman Academy several years ago during its inception, SAD 44 Superintendent David Murphy recognized the need to get students out of their community, out of their state, to travel to other parts of our world in order to help bring their education to life,” he said.

Greenburg said last year the group visited the U.S. Capitol, the Supreme Court, the Library of Congress, the National Zoological Park, the Natural History, American History and Air and Space museums, the U.S. Botanical Garden, and many of the memorials and monuments on the National Mall.

A similar trip is planned for this year, with a potential visit to the new National African American History and Culture Museum.

“We hope that these experiences bring education to life for the students, to engage them in a much more powerful way,” Greenburg said. “Instead of reading about famous things, places, events and people in books, online and in movies or videos, students can see, touch, smell, taste, hear and experience these things firsthand.”

The dinner will feature food with ingredients grown in-state and provided by farms and orchards. The foods, all prepared by students, include shepherd’s pie, dill-glazed carrots, corn chowder and apple crisp.

A donation of $5 is suggested.

emeisner@sunmediagroup.net