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Students' Trip To Japan Canceled Over Swine Flu

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May 27, 2009 5:12 pm US/Mountain

Students' Trip To Japan Canceled Over Swine Flu

Reporting
Mike Hooker
LONGMONT, Colo. (CBS4) ― Some students in Longmont are seeing their life-changing summer travel plans ruined by concern over the swine flu in Japan. The trip is canceled and the students fear they're out $1,000 they and their families paid for airfare.

The group has been eagerly planning an exchange trip from Colorado to Longmont's sister city of Chino, Japan. Five of the eight students on the planned trip go to Longmont High School.

Organizers of the Longmont Sister Cities Program say leaders in Chino have decided to cancel exchange programs this summer, being extra cautious about the H1N1 flu. The trouble is the students already bought their plane tickets.

"I was looking forward to learning the culture, just living the life of someone else," said high school student Micade Brack.

Brack and Casey Chandler are among the eight students who booked the trip. They were planning to leave in July for two weeks in Chino.

"I was ready to go to the other side of the world and just see something new," 17-year-old Chandler said. "Yesterday morning they broke the news to us that were not going."

"The trip, as of right now, is canceled because Chino felt that it was not worth the risk of exposing kids to the H1N1 or swine flu," said Sue Bolton with the Longmont Sister Cities Association.

Bolton has been to Chino four times.

"We know that they have our best interests at heart," Bolton said.

The cities have done exchanges each of the past 12 years.

"They cannot just get their money back," Bolton said.

"My stomach dropped. I started crying and now the tears are done and I'm just mad," Chandler said.

"(We're) trying to figure out how we're possibly going to pay for it now," Brack said. "Without the help of the organization it's almost impossible for us to pay for it at this point."

The students are holding out some hope that maybe the trip will somehow be resurrected. There's also the chance they could use the tickets to go next year, or pay a fee to change the tickets. They're planning to write to the airline, hoping perhaps they can get a break on the tickets.

(© MMIX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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