By Ryan Myers
CCC Journalism Program
BLACKWOOD – Camden County College will host a bus trip to the 2015 Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C. for students and the public on April 11.
Camden County College’s trip to the Cherry Blossom Festival will take place April 11.
Students from the Blackwood, Cherry Hill and Camden campuses of Camden County College and members of the public will have an opportunity to attend the Cherry Blossom Festival on that day. The festival, which takes place over 10 days in different parts of the country, celebrates the blooming of cherry blossom trees each spring.
Students will be able to attend this event for $35 and the general public will be able to take part for $45. Tickets are on sale now in the Office of Student Services Coordinator Jackie Tenuto in the upper level of the Connector Building on the Blackwood campus, Room 211 of the Camden Technology Center on the Camden campus and the information desk at the Rohrer Center on the Cherry Hill campus. They will be on sale until they are sold out.
The travel schedule for the festival is: 6:30 a.m. departure from Camden campus, 6:45 a.m. departure from Rohrer Center (Cherry Hill campus) and 7 a.m. departure from Blackwood campus. Once the bus arrives in Washington, D.C., passengers will be able to walk around the area on their own. At 2:30 p.m., the busses will depart from Union Station for the Georgetown area for passengers to get dinner on their own. The busses will pick up the passengers for the return ride home at 6 p.m.
“It is a really nice event. I go every year,” said Renee Pollard, secretary for Tenuto. “There is a lot to see and I think everyone should try to go.”
The festival offers many activities.
It “features creative and diverse activities that promote traditional and contemporary arts and culture, natural beauty and the environment, and community spirit and youth education, the majority of which are free and open to the public. Signature festival events include the Opening Ceremony, the Southwest Waterfront Fireworks Festival, and the National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade. There are over 150 daily cultural performances by local, national and international entertainers, sports competitions, and so much more,” according to the website http://www.nationalcherryblossomfestival.org. The festival “annually celebrates the gift of the cherry blossom trees and their symbol of enduring friendship between the citizens of Japan and the United States.”