Seniors from Calvary Baptist Academy ice-skated at Rockefeller Center during their visit to New York City. (CONTRIBUTED)

MADISON – Seniors at Calvary Baptist Academy experienced a glimpse of big-city life when they toured New York City on spring break.

The visit “showed the seniors a different way of living from how we do things here,” Cindy Hall said. She and husband Charles chaperoned the group. “They saw sights they have read and studied about.”

Traveling by Staten Island Ferry and subways, the group sensed “how people get by without cars,” Hall said. The teenagers saw “places they have read about or seen on television and in movies.” Seniors’ suggestions for tour stops helped to build the itinerary.

The only disappointment occurred at the United Nations, closed for Good Friday.

Seniors touring NYC were Audrey Gregory, Kayla Elledge, Katie Hernandez, Emily Canedey, Lindsey Shaver, Elizabeth Jacobus, Morgan Jones, James Jones, Zachary Dennison and Dylan Ames.

When Charles Hall contracted food poisoning, Cindy Hall was challenged to navigate the group through NYC. “I am not a map reader,” she said. Wanting to understand the city’s layout, the seniors helped to choose correct subway trains between venues. “The kids saw that everyone stayed together as a group, even (in) crowded areas at rush hour,” she said.

When the terrorist attacks of 9/11 occurred, these seniors were first-graders. “Visiting the 9/11 memorial was even more meaningful to the kids than anyone expected. They have grown up with the resulting shadow cast by those events,” Hall said. The students’ emotions were “a testament to the monument’s power and their understanding of the importance of 9/11.”

The Halls have led senior trips to NYC and Washington D.C. since their three sons were seniors at Calvary Baptist Academy. “The Class of 2013 wanted a big trip,” she said. “They asked us last summer (to) help them achieve that dream.”

This senior trip “broadened horizons and bonded the class just before they graduate and go separate ways,” Hall said.

Calvary Baptist Academy is a ministry of Calvary Baptist Church, 125 Douglass Road. Dirk Crawford is school administrator. For information, call 256-837-6873.