A group of Masterton Intermediate School students and staff yesterday launched the school's latest exchange trip to Japan that crowns months of community fundraising and years of international goodwill.
The group of 23 Year 8 students and four staff members, including deputy principal Cam Maunder, teacher Juliet Olson and teacher aides Nicola Bysouth and Jenny Joblin, flew out of New Zealand yesterday for their 13-day stay and visit to Shijonawate Gakuen Junior High School in Osaka, Japan.
The group raised more than $3000 for each student for the 13th MIS trip to Japan in a fundraising campaign that started last December and included raffles, sausage sizzles, a sponsored golf tournament, a quiz night, car boot sale, fashion show, firewood and wood chopping, and working security and car parking at a race meeting, and a clean-up after a Hurricanes rugby match.
The students on Monday thanked the numerous community and business sponsors that helped with fundraising, and their parents.
Last month the school hosted a group of 32 students and teachers who spent about a fortnight billeted with host families in Masterton for the 19th international visit from the junior high school in Osaka.
