Only fitting for the city’s yearlong celebration of the 1854 arrival of the first Orphan Train to Dowagiac, a group of local students will be hopping aboard an engine of their own during a special field trip next month.

Dowagiac Amtrak station volunteer Ron Leatz shared some details about the district’s upcoming “2017 Dowagiac Orphan Train” trip during a presentation to the members of the Dowagiac City Council Monday evening at city hall. The member of the Michigan Association of Railroad Passengers said he has been working with the schools, Amtrak, state legislators and others to organize a one-day student train ride to Chicago, which will be on Wednesday, Oct. 18.

Between 100 to 150 students, selected from Dowagiac Union High School and Dowagiac Middle School, will participate in the field trip, Leatz said.

“We are taking kids from this community who have never been on a train before,” Leatz said. “We are taking kids from this community who have never been out of this community before.”

The Dowagiac man, who serves as the “host” for travelers riding the Amtrak trains that stop at the city’s historic 1903 train depot, said he reached out to the schools in January to put together the trip, he said. In addition, he contacted state Sen. John Proos and Rep. Aaron Miller, representatives with the Michigan Department of Transportation and the MARP, in order to help get the cost of the train ride discounted, he said.

Thanks to their help, the trip will only cost the students $10 to ride to Chicago, and $10 to ride back, Leatz said.

“They are going to learn some things, and they are going to do some things, that they have never experienced before in their lives,” Leatz said.

The students will also not have to worry about paying for meals.

The Dowagiac Save-A-Lot will be donating apple pies for the students to eat during their trip to The Windy City. After they arrive, the McDonald’s restaurant inside the iconic Union Station will serve the travelers for free as well, Leatz said.

Leatz will be working with the district to raise money to purchase T-shirts for the students to wear for the trip soon, too, he said.

The volunteer also told city council that the outdoor lights he recently raised money to install on the roof of the Dowagiac train depot should be going up soon, either by the end of this week or next week.

“People are excited,” he said. “They are happy about the news. They like those lights on the station. It has nothing to do with Christmas. It has to do with a 1903 train station that is still in operation today.”