ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — Getting a group of middle school kids to follow a set of rules or plan is hard enough. Add in the first snowfall some of them have seen in their lives, you might as well change course.
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At least, that’s how Liberty Pines Academy Principal Donny Hoessler handled it.
“Anytime we went outside, the kids were playing in the snow,” said Hoessler, “they were digging in it, making some snowballs, picking up big chunks of snow, stepping on chunks of ice to see if it would crack.”
The school, as it does every year, took a group from its 8th grade class to Washington, D.C., earlier this week. This year’s itinerary, planned through the whole week, was thrown off the moment they arrived.
“We started seeing the snow when we first drove into Virginia,” Hoessler said, “it really started coming down getting into D.C.”
As students got off the bus, their shoes met snow on the ground below. They ended up being snowed into their hotel. It wasn’t much later the kids had their own plans.
“We didn’t come all this way just to be stuck in a hotel,” said Hoessler, “we went out in groups and everyone got into this snowball fight. I think it’ll be something they remember for a lifetime, that’s for sure.”
The trip to visit monuments, tour museums and see Capitol Hill, at the sight of the snow, quickly turned into more playing than perusing.
“I felt like the unofficial photographer that day, my hand was freezing having to take pictures with everyone’s phones,” Hoessler said with a laugh.
For students like Ruby Grace Kight, who spoke with Action News Jax alongside the principal, this wasn’t the kind of fight that left battle scars. The fun in the snow left her with a memory warm enough to feel like melting.
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“This is definitely one of the best weeks of my life. I mean, it was so fun. And it’s definitely a memory I’m going to keep forever,” said Kight.
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