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Fall 2024 : (September 09, 2024 - November 13, 2024)
A Trek of the Ragged Mountains
Come search for 'wild' animals and visions at Ragged Mountain Natural Area. Edgar A. Poe's story "A Tale of the Ragged Mountains" was set here (trip correlates to Get to Know Poe class). We will hike approximately 2 miles. The hike has some steep and rugged areas. The unpaved road to the Upper Parking Lot also has some rugged areas. Expect this hike to take about an hour (longer if we rest).
Notes: Link to Ragged Mountain Natural Area map in description.
Registration closes: 2024-09-12
Thursday, Sep 12, 2024 1770 Reservoir Road Charlottesville, Virginia 22902
Ragged Mountain Natural Area Hike
This ~2 mile hike should take about an hour (longer if we rest).
Notes: We will meet at the Upper Parking Lot near the dam. From the lot, we will take the Blue/Main Loop to the right for appx 1 mile until we reach the "Sugar Hollow Water Line Tunnel". At the water line tunnel, we will switch to the Green/Upper Trail and follow it back to the parking lot. Along the way, we will see a few carved animal statues. **Little hikers are welcome; parents are responsible for keeping with the group.

03:00PM - 04:30PM Ages: 1-99 Participant: $0.00
Chaperone: $0.00
Sibling: $0.00
7/15
Decades Arcade 2024
30+ pinball machines showcasing the ’50s to today! The most popular arcade games from the ’80s and ’90s! And of course, no arcade experience is complete without air hockey!

Registration closes: 2024-09-13
Friday, Sep 13, 2024 418 E Main St, Charlottesville, VA 22902
Decades Arcade
Private Event at Decades means CHEC gets the whole place to ourselves! Come kick off the 2024 school year with 2 hrs of all things DECADES ARCADE!

10:00AM - 12:00PM Ages: 0-100 Participant persons attending age 3-15 $20.00
Chaperone persons attending over the age 16 $20.00
Sibling under 3 are free $0.00
19/50
Mary Baldwin University
Mary Baldwin University has always challenged the status quo to expand access and opportunity for everyone. Standing on that foundation, we’re rebuilding what a college education can be—one where liberal arts combined with professional programs inspire personal, social, and intellectual growth for a diverse population. Today, we’re recognized as the top college in Virginia for delivering social mobility for low-income students. MBU offers programs of study supported by traditional classroom teaching, online, and work experience. We emphasize the development of critical, creative, reflective reasoning and experiential learning as the bedrock for fulfilling and meaningful lives in the fast-changing new economy.

Registration closes: 2024-09-17
Tuesday, Sep 24, 2024 101 E Frederick Street, Staunton, VA 24401
University Information Session and Tour
As some teens at CHEC begin thinking about college possibilities, we are planning to offer several tours of campuses in the area in the next year. This information session and tour is for high school students and their parent/adult chaperone to learn more about Mary Baldwin University. The information session will cover the admissions process, university programs and questions related to attending the university. Attendees will also be given a tour of the campus. Lunch will be provided. The University MBU is a small, private university enrolling nearly 2,000 students at the undergraduate and graduate levels on campuses in Staunton and Fishersville, Virginia, and online. Since 1842, this intimate learning environment has allowed students to cultivate strong connections with faculty and peers. Our Mission Mary Baldwin University empowers inclusive leaders to create lives of purpose and professional success in our changing world. Three Colleges The university is organized into three academic colleges: the Gold College of Arts and Sciences, the Murphy Deming College of Health Sciences, and the Palmer College of Professional Studies.
Notes: Exact meeting location and parking will be sent to attendees in the week prior to the visit.

11:00AM - 01:00AM Ages: 13-18 Participant participating high school student $2.00
Chaperone participating adult $2.00
Sibling participating sibling not currently in high school $0.00
8/30
Chiles Apple Harvest
For over one hundred years, the Chiles Family has been carefully tending our orchards. Beginning with a card table, cigar box, and roadside stand, the first generation of the Chiles Family farmers sold the fruit of their labors to neighbors and folks passing through. Since that time, the orchards have grown to become community favorites and destinations for visitors far and wide.

Registration closes: 2024-09-24
Thursday, Sep 26, 2024 1351 Greenwood Road Crozet, VA 22932
Chiles Apple Harvest
“Apple School” story time to learn about the life cycle of an apple. Scenic wagon ride through the orchard. ¼ peck bag for pick-your-own apples (4-5 apples). Children’s coloring books. Included in tour is a fresh cider donut snack and a sample cup of cider
Notes: Children under 2 are free. It can get windy at the base of the mountain. Play clothes, tennis shoes, boots, hats, jackets are recommended.

09:30AM - 11:30AM Ages: 0-99 Participant Participating student under age 18 $13.00
Chaperone Adult attending $13.00
Sibling Under 2 are free $0.00
22/25
Living Energy Farm
Living Energy Farms seeks to answer the question of how eight billion people might live sustainably. At our farm, we grow most of our food and we earn our living. Our home is comfortable year round, and we have modern conveniences. We do this without grid power, a generator, or any support from nuclear, natural gas, coal, or industrial “renewable” energy. Come see how we do it.

Registration closes: 2024-09-25
Friday, Sep 27, 2024 1022 Bibb Store Rd Louisa, VA 23093
Living Energy Farm
Living Energy Farms seeks to answer the question of how eight billion people might live sustainably. At our farm, we grow most of our food and we earn our living. Our home is comfortable year round, and we have modern conveniences. We do this without grid power, a generator, or any support from nuclear, natural gas, coal, or industrial “renewable” energy. Come see how we do it.
Notes: Elsa Spencer is Coordinator for this event. You may contact her by email at elsaspencer@gmail.com to coordinate carpool from Belmont area!

10:00AM - 12:00PM Ages: 0-100 Participant Participating student under age 18 $3.00
Chaperone Adult attending $3.00
11/30
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia, is one of the largest comprehensive art museums in the United States. VMFA, which opened in 1936, is a state agency and privately endowed educational institution. Its purpose is to collect, preserve, exhibit, and interpret art, and to encourage the study of the arts. VMFA’s permanent holdings encompass nearly 40,000 artworks, including the largest public collection of Fabergé outside of Russia, the finest collection of Art Nouveau outside of Paris, and one of the nation’s finest collections of American art.
Notes: Meet at & enter through the School Group Entrance.
Bring: Bring credit card or coins for parking in the VFMA lot or on the street. You may bring lunch or buy lunch at VFMA's Best Cafe. NO photography, pens, markers, or colored pencils in the museum. You may bring a non-colored pencil and sketchbook (no larger than 18"x24").
Registration closes: 2024-09-27
Friday, Oct 04, 2024 200 N. Arthur Ashe Blvd, Richmond, VA 23220
The Great Outdoors Tour
Artists are keen observers of nature! Safari through ancient to modern galleries and investigate pictorial environments to find many unique plants, animals, birds and insects. This tour pairs well with these CHEC classes: Cool Creatures, Welcome to the Jungle, and Art Then and Now.

12:00PM - 01:00PM Ages: 5-8 Participant: $2.00
Chaperone: $2.00
Sibling: $0.00
5/15
Places and Faces Tour
From past to present, artists have always captured a variety of people and places in their art, both real and imagined. Explore the galleries and discover some of the stories and characters that inspired these works. This tour pairs well with these CHEC classes: Paint & Bake Brunch, Paint & Sip, Portraiture: the Art of Faces, and Drawing from Life with Dry Media.

12:00PM - 01:00PM Ages: 9-18 Participant: $2.00
Chaperone: $2.00
Sibling: $0.00
10/15
Botanical Garden of the Piedmont
The mission of the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont is to welcome all community members and visitors to engage in nature, to inspire learning through the beauty and importance of plants, to advance sustainability, and to promote human and environmental well-being.

Registration closes: 2024-10-10
Friday, Oct 11, 2024 Botanical Garden of the Piedmont 950 Melbourne Rd Charlottesville
2nd Annual CHEC Poetry Reading
Adults and students are welcome to bring original poetry, or any poems that you love to read in front of the group. We will have a large sign-up poster that day to choose the order for readers, and a spread of snacks and tea to enjoy as well.
Notes: Forested with mulch trails, we'll gather at the big white tent and proceed downhill to the amphitheater with wooden benches in a semi-circle and a stage area. Poetry books or printed poems, boots or hiking shoes, a sweater or jacket, depending on the weather.

10:00AM - 12:00PM Ages: 0-100 Participant Participating student under age 18 $2.00
Chaperone Adult attending $2.00
9/30
Cancelled Fall Camping Trip--Pocahontas State Park
Just 20 miles from Richmond, Pocahontas offers boating, picnicking, camping, camping cabins, 90-plus miles of trails, and nature and history programs.

Registration closes: 2024-10-08
Monday, Oct 14, 2024 - Thursday, Oct 17, 2024 10301 State Park Road, Chesterfield, VA
Cancelled- Group Camping
Group campsite at Pocahontas State Park. There are three 20'x20' tent pads, which can be shared amongst the group. Bring your own equipment, food, etc. Please let Jocelyn know the type of camping equipment you will bring.
Notes: Fee is for site rental/vehicle pass. For those who do not wish to camp, the chosen Buddy Site (3) is near the yurts and some camping cabins. Families may choose to book those at their own expense. Camping cabins are basically small bunk rooms. Yurts and camping cabins don't have restrooms nor indoor cooking facilities. They may not have electrical lighting--check the website.

Mon, Oct 14, 04:00PM - Thu, Oct 17, 01:00PM Ages: 0-100 Participant: $23.00
Chaperone: $23.00
0/18
Cancelled Ranger Program at Pocahontas State Park
Ranger program, details TBD. Current options being floated: netting in the lake, reptile critter encounter, CCC museum. We will likely do a little bit of everything!
Notes: If attending the ranger program and *not* camping, the $7/vehicle entry fee may apply. Homeschoolers do have free entry into parks that charge parking fees, but this is sometimes misunderstood by gate staff. https://www.dcr.virginia.gov/state-parks/parking-fees

Wed, Oct 16, 10:00AM - Wed, Oct 16, 12:00PM Ages: 0-100 Participant: $5.00
Chaperone: $0.00
Sibling under 3 is free. Only choose sibling for under 3, please. $0.00
0/100
Henricus Historical Park
Voyage back in time 400 years to the Citie of Henricus, the second successful English settlement and Virginia Indian site of Arrohateck!
Notes: This is open to anyone, not just folks camping at Pocahontas!
Registration closes: 2024-10-10
Thursday, Oct 17, 2024 251 Henricus Park Road Chester, VA 23836
Mapping the James & People of the River
Mapping the James River: All aboard! In this program, students examine historical maps and 17th century navigational tools to discover how the English colonists sailed across the Atlantic Ocean and up the James River. Using basic mapping skills and tools, students retrace Captain John Smith’s exploration of the James River in 1607. People of the River: Powhatan Indians: Tour Arrohateck, a re-created Virginia Indian community once located on the James River, and experience the Eastern Woodland Powhatan Indian culture – just prior to contact – through hands-on participation in farming, food preparation, hunting and fishing and cultural activities. Watch life skills demonstrations by costumed interpreters and learn how each culture met their survival needs.
Notes: The younger ages will have two hour-long programs, which will run one after the other.

01:00PM - 03:00PM Ages: 5-11 Participant: $19.00
Chaperone: $12.00
6/25
The Two Lives of Pocahontas
Follow the cultural lives of Pocahontas as both a Virginia Indian girl and later as an English woman. Compare and contrast the economic, educational, religious and political implications of her life in and between both cultures. Program uses both the Arrohateck Indian village and the English Citie of Henricus.
Notes: The older kids will have a single two hour program.

01:00PM - 03:00PM Ages: 11-18 Participant: $19.00
Chaperone: $12.00
8/25
Botanical Plant Based Fare
Botanical Restaurant
Notes: https://www.botanicalfare.com/
Bring: questions about restaurant management, plant based diet, entrepreneurship
Registration closes: 2024-09-30
Tuesday, Oct 22, 2024 421 E Main St. Charlottesville, VA 22902
Botanical Plant Based Fare
Join us for a field trip to Botanical Plant Based Fare, a vegan restaurant where sustainability meets deliciousness. We will get a behind the scenes tour of the restaurant and hear from owner and chef, Ryan Becklund, on what it takes to run a restaurant, why she chose plant based fare, how she came up with her business plan, what it is like to be in the hospitality business as well as what she looks for in employees. Botanical is so popular that they opened a second location in Crozet. Come be inspired how you can put your values and beliefs into creating your own business. October 22nd, 3 PM - 4 PM, location; Botanical Fare (downtown mall) 421 E Main Street, Charlottesville, VA 22902.
Notes: Participants will need to pay for parking. Parking is street or parking ramp, Botanical is located near the Market Street Garage Ramp. Siblings are welcome if they can handle sitting still and listening when the speaker is talking.

03:00PM - 04:00PM Ages: 7-18 Participant: $2.00
20/20
Wayne Theater
Waynesboro’s premier live entertainment performance venue in which all of the arts may be appreciated, enjoyed, learned and supported.

Registration closes: 2024-10-08
Friday, Oct 25, 2024 521 W Main Street Waynesboro, VA 22980
Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery
Get your deerstalker cap on — the play’s afoot! From multi-award-winning playwright Ken Ludwig comes a fast-paced adventure about everyone’s favorite detective solving his most notorious case. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson must crack the mystery of “The Hound of the Baskervilles” before a family curse dooms its newest heir. Watch as our intrepid investigators try to escape a dizzying web of clues, silly accents, disguises and deceit as five actors deftly portray more than 40 characters. ‍ Does a wild hellhound prowl the moors of Devonshire? Can our heroes discover the truth in time? Join the fun and see how far from elementary the truth can be.This performance is part of Wayne's Arts Education Programing for 8th-12th grade.

10:00AM - 12:00PM Ages: 13-18 Participant participating student (suggested age 8th-12th grade) $16.00
Chaperone participating adults $16.00
18/25
Blackfriars Playhouse
Located in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley, Virginia’s premiere classical theatre is at once intimate in scale and epic in imagination—creating vital, sophisticated, and accessible seasons built around a company of versatile actors performing in repertory all year round. We are a center for shared discovery by audiences, scholars, and artists of Shakespeare, his contemporaries, and classics old and new.

Registration closes: 2024-10-01
Wednesday, Oct 30, 2024 10 S. Market Street Staunton, VA 24401
Macbeth
Step into an ominous world of witches, warfare, murder, and madness this season at the Blackfriars Playhouse with Shakespeare’s Macbeth, a relentless examination of the darkest depths of the human condition. This twisted tale begins with a supernatural prophecy that sets in motion a bloody course of events for Macbeth and his Lady as they descend into treachery and turmoil.
Notes: All students in Teen Checstra Day will attend this field trip with their class as part of that program, so do not register those students for tickets. Other CHEC students who would like to attend can sign up here.

10:15AM - 12:15PM Ages: 8-18 Participant: $27.00
Chaperone: $27.00
4/10
POE Museum
Illuminating Poe for everyone, evermore.
Notes: https://www.visitable.org/businesses/the-poe-museum
Registration closes: 2024-10-31
Thursday, Nov 07, 2024 1914 E Main St, Richmond, VA 23223
Gothic Fiction Writing Workshop
Students will understand the Gothic genre by reading select passages of “The Cask of Amontillado.” Students will use this short story to identify Gothic themes, settings, and plot points by building an interactive plot diagram using bricks. After learning about the elements of a gothic short story, students will plan and write their own Gothic story. Length: 45 min Age: 6th-12th

01:00PM - 02:30PM Ages: 12-18 Participant Participating student under age 18 $12.00
Chaperone Adult attending $12.00
6/25
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Illustrating Poe
Students will listen to and read a selection of Edgar Allan Poe’s poetry including “Alone,” “Annabel Lee,” and “Eldorado.” Throughout the reading, students will pay attention to the imagery in the poems. Then, students will create their own artwork inspired by the poems and showcase their creations to their fellow classmates. Length: 30 min Age: K-5th
Notes: Children under 6 are free

01:00PM - 02:30PM Ages: 6-12 Participant Participating student under age 18 $12.00
Chaperone Adult attending $12.00
Sibling under 6 are free $0.00
5/25
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Are field trips drop off?

No, not unless explicitly stated. Parents should plan to attend field trips with their student(s) or to send them with another parent/caregiver. CHEC will have a field trip coordinator attending the field trip to answer parent questions and coordinate with staff at the location, but the coordinator is not responsible for monitoring students.
Do my students need to take classes at CHEC to enroll in field trips?

You do not need to be enrolled in classes at CHEC to take field trips. They are open to everyone. You will need an account on the CHEC website and payment will be managed through that account.

I want to enroll my student in a field trip that they aren't the correct age group for. What should I do?

Our age recommendations are generally guidelines, however some field trip venues have strict age guidelines. Please enroll based on the age ranges noted. If you have an older or younger child you would like to enroll, please reach out to fieldtrips@cvillechec.org and we will let you know if there is wiggle room for that particular trip and how to proceed with enrollment.
There are several programs for different age groups associated with a field trip. I want to enroll my children in different programs, but they are at the same time and I can't chaperone both. How is this handled?

You do not need to register as a chaperone twice. You should only pay one fee. Typically, you would register to accompany your younger child(ren). Upon arrival, make sure the coordinator realizes that you are accompanying your younger student.
My family can't make the field trip anymore. Can we get a refund?

CHEC field trips are generally non-refundable. CHEC is run by volunteers and refund requests create additional work for multiple people. In addition, many field trips and/or group rates require us to meet certain minimums and we often have to notify our host of our headcount commitment well in advance of trips. Occasionally we are able to make exceptions to our refund policy for field trip totals over $50. If you would like to see if a refund is possible for a trip where your total was more than $50 or if you would like refund consideration for financial hardship, please contact fieldtrips@cvillechec.org. Consideration will depend on variables such as how far in advance we receive the request and our payment and headcount commitments for the particular venue.