Greeley West High School offers a plethora of extracurricular activities for students. One of the biggest opportunities available is the travel club, which allows students of any grade get to travel out of the country to new places and have memorable adventures.  The pandemic has negatively impacted students who desired to travel with their classmates in the past two years.  There has been a rising concern for travel plans globally, bringing any type of travel in and out of countries to a halt. 

All of the trips in 2020 and 2021 have been postponed to 2022. Mrs. Corrine Yahn, who hosts the spring travel, expects things to get back to normal next year.   “It was disappointing that we could not travel last year or this year, however, we are looking forward to our Iceland trip during Spring Break of 2022,” Yahn said. 

Over 85 families attended Yahn’s virtual meeting regarding Iceland travel and currently 24 travelers are planning on making the trip.  “Ms. (Susan) Eastin also had an overwhelming amount of participation for her Summer 2022 trip.” Yahn added.  “It’s nice to know that students still have a great passion to travel after everything that has happened.”

The travel company that West uses has been very helpful to looking forward into the future regarding the trips.  EF Tours offers a Peace of Mind Policy that ensures the best health and safety of all travelers.  In March of 2020, EF actually hired over 400 airbus planes to bring back all their US travelers safely within 48 hours of the travel restrictions placed on the majority of countries globally.  “Ms. Eastin and I have great trust with our travel company and plan to continue,”  Yahn said.

Traveling after Covid will have left some huge changes. So far, for the time being, the changes for international travel and vaccine requirements are not known.  Had West students travelled this year, they would have still met some restrictions.   “Travelers would be expected to wear masks at all times and if anyone tested positive for Covid, during the trip everyone has to go into quarantine, based on each particular country’s quarantine policy,” Eastin shared.

In the meantime, both teachers are excited to get students back into foreign locations soon.  Eastin will take multiple trips with students to Europe next year.  “We are still optimistic that travel can continue in 2022 but are committed to keeping students safe so we shall see what happens,” Eastin said.