KINGSTON — Chances are that if you give the ninth grade Options students a type of fund-raiser, they’ll tell you when and where they did it.

Whether it’s a car wash, rummage sale or baby-sitting service, the Junior High Options Program’s (JHOP) most senior class is doing anything and everything to earn money to take a trip to the East Coast cities of New York and Boston. For many of the students, it will be their first time making the cross-country trek.

“Last year, the ninth graders went to Italy and England,” said JHOP student Jasper Stenstrom. “We wanted to continue that tradition.”

The trip is not sanctioned by the school district and is being organized by Options’ volunteer Tony Corning. He, along with a few other parents and the students’ teacher, Nat Smith, will accompany the students on the trip.

The eight students making the journey, Stenstrom, Winona Sigo, Kellie Glen, Dorian Goettler, Alik Crockett, Rusty Scott, Vivian Suarez and Alex Beddo, said they all can’t wait for late March to arrive, when they’ll fly to New York City.

The students have been learning a lot about the history of the United States and the country during its infancy. Both New York and Boston were key cities at that period in time.

“We’ve been talking a lot about the settlers in history class,” Stenstrom said.

But the ninth grader added that one thing they cannot learn or prepare for are the sociological differences between the two U.S. coasts and “getting out of our culture and seeing places that we’ve never seen,” he said.

A few of the Options students admitted that they joined the program in part because of the ninth grade trip and experience.

“When I heard they went to Europe (last year), I said, ‘Wow, I’m joining that,’” said Sigo, who is a first year student in Options.

The trip’s preparation started in January and has since been a mad dash to do as much fund-raising as possible. The students conduct a car wash fund-raiser every Sunday at the Cenex in Poulsbo or at the Texaco across the street from Central Market in Poulsbo. However, many odds-and-ends type jobs have been performed by the students all over town. But the students said it was worth it for the chance to make the trip.

“I’ll put as much as I can into this,” Scott said.

“It’ll be really cool to know we’ve accomplished this,” Suarez added. “To be there and be excited for the week ahead of us.”

The JHOP ninth graders will be holding their weekly car wash at Cenex Feb. 27.