Seacrest students camp in north Georgia to view solar eclipse

For some Naples residents, 81 percent just isn’t enough.

That’s the portion of the solar eclipse that will be visible in Naples on Monday. But three students and three staff members from Seacrest Country Day School made the trek to Dillard, Georgia, to experience totality — a phenomenon where the moon completely covers the sun so that only the sun’s corona is visible.

Totality in Dillard will last for 2:38 minutes — just two seconds short of the maximum view time that will be possible in other parts of the U.S.

“I’m super-excited. I really like astronomy. I think it’s really cool,” said Seacrest 10th-grader Thomas Richardson, 15.

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Thomas said he’s also excited about the opportunity to bond with his classmates and, more importantly, his teachers.

“Let’s be real — this is going to get us some brownie points,” he laughed.

The group left Naples on Friday and are camping 80 miles west of Dillard in Blue Ridge, Georgia, where a Seacrest administrator, Marty Durham, owns a plot of land. In addition to fun activities like tubing down the scenic Toccoa River and hiking the first miles of the Appalachian Trail, Durham and other staff members have made sure to sprinkle in some important learning opportunities.

Marc Barry, a Boy Scouts scoutmaster and Seacrest math and robotics teacher, taught the students how to build a campfire and how to cook nutritious meals with limited resources.

Lisa McLaughlin, a former Navy engineer with a master’s degree in space systems engineering and a Seacrest science and robotics teacher, has been teaching the students about astronomy.

On Saturday, she helped the students set up a telescope — a Gskyer EQ130 — that she bought specifically for the trip, and spent the night teaching them how to track constellations and planets.

On Sunday, McLaughlin gave the students a geology lesson on the Appalachian Trail and made plans to teach them how to track the sun and build a sundial using model foam planets.

“We’re learning very sneakily,” Thomas said. “Like they’re teaching it to us but we don’t even know that we’re getting taught.”

Thomas’ classmate Olivia Westervelt, 15, said she was worried about missing swim practice and the first couple of days of school — classes at Seacrest begin Monday — but that the trip has been worth the sacrifice.

Olivia hadn’t heard about solar eclipses until her teachers announced the trip in January, but after watching YouTube videos about the event, she decided it was too special to miss.

Olivia spent the second half of the school year encouraging other students to sign up, and many did, although more than a dozen dropped out in the last week.

It all worked out, though, and Olivia said she’s having a blast.

“It doesn’t feel like a school trip,” she said. “And I love that it’s just three kids and that we’re all friends, too.”

Marty Durham, director of operations and human resources at Seacrest, agrees.

“We couldn’t have a better group of kids,” she said. “Their willingness to experience everything and learn is awesome.”

Plus, Durham said, it’s nice not being the only “geek” on the trip.

“I’m always the one on camping trips saying ‘Look! There’s a planet!’ ” she said. “But now there’s actually kids who want to see them.”

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And, more importantly, they’ll be viewing the planets safely.

McLaughlin, the former Navy engineer, has been looking forward to the eclipse since she found out about it 10 years ago, and she bought 30 pairs of solar eclipse glasses in January.

“It’s been a long, long time since one has gone totally across the U.S.,” she said. “And that’s a very exciting thing.”