BY BERNIE MIXON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
SHARONVILLE -- More than 200 fourth-graders at the Robert E. Lucas Intermediate School will participate in a group getting-to-know-you session today that includes a cookout, a night hike through a nature center and ghost stories.
The event, held for more than 20 years, is the school's way of making the new students feel welcome to Princeton City School District's magnet school and helping them to make friends.
It kicks off this afternoon with a visit from the Cincinnati Zoo and includes a series of activities including a magic act, ending with a sleep-over at the school, 3900 Cottingham Drive.
"The kids can come here in a relaxed atmosphere and get to know each other on another level," said Lynn Royer, Learning Center director, who is in charge of ghost stories for the event. "They get to see each other laugh."
The event began soon after the school opened in the 1970s as a way to build camaraderie among fourth-graders who come to the school from every neighborhood served by the Princeton district.
"We have 217 fourth-graders this year," Mrs. Royer said. "We have children from all different economic backgrounds, ethnic backgrounds, and even academically it's a broad range. I think it is a special school because of that. It gives children a chance to be in an environment like the real world."
During the event, children are mixed together so they can all get to know one another. Following the presentation by the zoo, the students participate in a series of activities in the afternoon. After dinner, evening activities involve stories around a campfire as well as aerobics, campfire songs and ghost stories.
"We do a night hike. The students hold onto a rope -- a teacher is in front with a flashlight and in back with a flashlight -- and follow a marked trail," Mrs. Royer said. Some teachers "hide in the woods and jump out to try and scare the students."
Later, the students will be fed a snack and then it's off to bed. The next day, the kids are fed breakfast and board school buses to return home. They get the day off Friday.
Chelsea Caminiti, 10, a fifth-grader at the school, went through the overnight experience last year and said this year's group of students will have as much fun.
"It helped me. It told me that it would be fun here because they did all this stuff for us," Chelsea said. "I would tell (this year's fourth-graders) to have a good time, and I hope they make a lot of friends."
