Local kindergartners take a ‘Trip through Time’ at Legacy to experience history firsthand

For nearly 30 years, local kindergartners have traveled back in time to wash laundry by hand, create their own rope and shell corn until their thumbs hurt through an ESU-13 program. On Thursday, April 21, kindergartners once again did all that during ESU-13’s Trip through Time event at Legacy of the Plains Museum.

Penny Businga, a retired ESU-13 employee and long-time museum volunteer, started the program. Businga said she was just looking for ways to get every school grade involved in the community.

“We wanted to have wonderful things for every grade that involve the community and had lots of enrichment and make connections for kids,” she said.

When the program first started out, it took place at the North Platte Valley Museum. When the museum merged with the Farm and Ranch Museum to create the Legacy of the Plains Museum, it gave students even more learning opportunities.

“When they merged to be Legacy, it was even better,” Businga said. “So, it worked out great.”

The event consists of eight different stations in which students learn about their ancestors from museum volunteers dressed in period clothing to play the part. Cowboy Tim demonstrates — using flour — how cowboys like him branded their cattle back in the day while a woman dressed as a pioneer shows the kindergartners how to milk a cow. Students also got to pet a fluffy chicken, play with period toys, sit in a tipi and try a homemade biscuit.

Jill Trautman, event organizer from ESU-13, said it’s an event that everyone looks forward to every year.

“The teachers are really, really great. They look forward to this event every year,” she said. “My own kids did it and they still talk about it, and they’re going into middle school. They’re like, ‘I remember going through the Trip through Time,’ so they really liked it.”

Trautman said ESU-13 plays just a small part in putting this event together and keeping it going every year. She said it’s really thanks to all the volunteers.

“We couldn’t do without the presenters,” she said. “These people that come in and actually do the talking and do the teaching to the kids, they do awesome. They know so much about this stuff.”

Businga, who still coordinates the volunteers for the event, said the museum is practically run on volunteers. They all care about letting the children experience history firsthand.

She said, “The concepts of history are so abstract to little kids, that if we can make something real, it’s in their brain for the next few years, (so) when they get to classes, it starts to make sense.”

The two-hour trip isn’t quite long enough to get a full understanding of the entire story that Legacy of the Plains has to offer, though, Businga said. She said she hopes each year that this event inspires the students to come back.

“The kids barely get an introduction to the museum,” she said. “So, having families come back, where their kids can shine and say things (they learned), can be a good connection and make a stronger memory.”

*This article first appeared in the Gering Courier on April 28, 2022. See more photos here.