KATRINA ODROBINA WINS TRIP OF
A LIFETIME

Chicago, Illinois - Katrina Odrobina, daughter of PNA Vice President Paul and Janice Odrobina is a member of Lodge 1758. She lives in Chicago and attends Lane Tech College Prep High School, where she is a senior. She plans to attend College and will major in Elementary Education. During the summer, she was an intern at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, where Katrina is a volunteer in the Science Achievers Program.

Recently Katrina was happy to win a two week all expense paid trip by writing and essay on the topic "What Does the United Nations Mean to Me?" It was sponsored by the Oddfellows and Rebekahs, a philanthropic organization, that sponsors this competitions for teens ages 16-17 years old.

Katrina along with a group of seven other students from Illinois, flew from O'Hare Airport to Philadelphia. The group met other winners from all over the world. The group saw The Liberty Bell, Independence Hall (Where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were signed), the Betsy Ross House, Christ Church (the oldest Church in America), and other sites along the way.

The next day the winners left for New York. There they visited the United Nations in the morning and took part in several meetings and discussions, primarily about global warming and other issues of global interest. In the evening, they went to the "Top of the Rock" (a sightseeing attraction where you go on an elevator to the top of the Rockefeller Center Building); there was really a great view of New York City from there. During the next day, they took the ferry to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. They stopped at "Ground Zero" (where the World Trade Center Towers once stood) and St. Patrick's Cathedral. They walked down Wall Street and saw the Stock Exchange. The visits to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty were exciting and the students learned a lot and had a fun day. They got to see the the sights of New York City, walked down Fifth Avenue and caught a Broadway Musical called "In The Heights".

The next day they were off to Ottawa, Canada. The group of 170 teens was divided into three buses. It was an 11 hour drive from New York to Canada, so the sightseeing was the next day with a visit to the Parliament Buildings. They spent the fourth of July at Niagara Falls and saw an amazing fireworks display.

On the way back to Pennsylvania, they went through New York and stopped at the Corning Museum of Glass. In Pennsylvania, they went to the Hershey Chocolate Factory and saw how Hershey Kisses were made, where they were treated to free chocolates.

The next stop was Gettysburg, which was educational, but it was also fun since Katrina enjoys history, and the tour guide told them stories of what happened instead of just reading off facts.

The last stop of the tour was Washington, D.C. They visited the Arlington National Cemetery, the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian, the Holocaust Museum, the Capitol Building, the Washington Monument, the World War II Memorial, the Supreme Court Building, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt State Park. The group only walked past the White House, but had an amazing time in Washington, D.C.

The last day, they drove all the way back to Philadelphia since all the flights were leaving from Philadelphia Airport.

Another interesting feature of the trip was that each night, Katrina had different roommates, so that way they got to know many people on the trip as they could. There were teens from across the United States as well as Norway, Finland, and Canada. The next morning it was time to leave which made it sad since many of them would never see each other again, but they promised to keep in touch with emails and phone calls. All in all, it was an educational opportunity and an enjoyable trip of a lifetime.

Submitted by:
Katrina Odrobina

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