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Students will take debate skills on ultimate road trip -- Cuba photo by Steve Johnson From right, Tara Anderson, Chelsea Ruediger and Noah Treiger pack medical supplies to take to Cuba. They are on the first American high school debate team to visit the country. Ashland teen-agers among those involved in historic exchange By Dani Dodge of the Mail Tribune The 27 teens going to Cuba this week don't expect to change the world. But they do hope they'll make a little dent in its attitudes. "Maybe we'll change a few people's minds about Americans and that could someday make a difference," said Chelsea Ruediger, a 17-year-old Ashland High School senior, as she packed donated medical supplies into duffel bags. "I think it's important they know not everyone thinks communism is wrong. I don't necessarily agree with dictatorship, but I think there should be respect for all forms of government." After doing a live broadcast on a national news program Monday morning, the 27 high school students and nine adults will fly to Cuba for an eight-day adventure. The students, 10 from Ashland High School, will formally debate Cuban high school students about subjects ranging from human rights to Web access to the U.S. embargo against Cuba. Debate also will certainly include discussion of Elian Gonzalez, the 6-year-old Cuban boy who became the focus of national controversy in both countries after he survived a shipwreck that killed his mother as they made their way to the United States. Elian's father wants him back in Cuba, while his American relatives in Miami are fighting to keep him in the United States. The U.S. students expect to see protests about Elian both in Miami, where they will make their connecting flight, and in Cuba. But they aren't concerned about their safety in Cuba. "Their focus is more directed at the government than the people and so I'm not too worried about us as a student group going down there," said Nicole Clarke, a 17-year-old Ashland senior. "They actually invited us to go down to protest if we want to. I don't know if we will, but it will definitely be interesting to check it out." Debate coach John Tredway -- who led Ashland to eight state debate championships in the 1990s -- has been working toward this moment for more than two years. It was only after President Clinton adopted a new policy promoting people-to-people contact with Cuba last year, though, that the trip began to seem possible. Before making final preparations for the trip, Tredway went there in August to make sure it was safe for the students. There he met communist leaders who have been organizing the details of the trip in Cuba. He said he's not sure if the group will be the first group of American high school students to visit Cuba, but he knows it's the first debate team. "We've had baseball groups go down, but this is more serious business about international affairs," he said. "But, it will be fun." In total, the trip will cost about $50,000. Each adult and student who could afford it paid $1,300; the rest came from fund-raising efforts, according to Carlos Reichenshammer, who was in charge of fund-raising. The 50-year-old homebuilder is also one of the chaperones. He said community individuals and groups donated $13,000. "We applied for several grants -- Microsoft and other companies -- but none of them came through," Reichenshammer said. "The majority of the money came from individuals, and $3,000 from the Ashland School District, and Ashland High School made a similar donation." Students going on the trip were chosen not so much for their debate skills as for their proficiency in the Spanish language. The teens will do the entire debate in Spanish. Most students have completed three or four years of Spanish classes. Reichenshammer's son, Rex, a 16-year-old junior at Ashland, is fluent in Spanish because he's spent time in his father's native country, Argentina. Rex expects the most interesting part of the trip to be shooting the breeze with the Cuban students. The Americans will participate in several casual events with Cuban students, including a basketball game and an evening at a disco. "I'm just looking forward to the informal contact with the Cuban students," he said. "Getting to see how they live and interact. Looking at a different lifestyle." On Friday, Rex and Chelsea and other students spent class time packing donated medical supplies into duffel bags. Each bag was stuffed with syringes, surgical gloves and sutures and then weighed to make sure it didn't go over the 22-pound limit. Ashland physicians donated $1,000 to pay the extra flight cost to pack the 500 pounds of medical supplies to Cuba. "We're taking it to a pediatric hospital because they need it," Chelsea said. Medical needs are acute in Cuba. On Thursday, Tredway received an e-mail saying a kerosene lamp had burned one of the comrades and salve was needed. Tredway said he went to several pharmacies looking for the requested ointment, only to hear from pharmacists that it was really an outdated form of treatment for burns. "They blame everything on the embargo," Tredway said of the shortage. "But also there may be an issue with their economic planning." Still, the economic embargo, in place since the 1960s, is one of the issues that some students believe their trip will begin to change. "The whole communist threat is over," said Noah Treiger, 17. "I'm hoping we will free up the whole blockade, maybe not right away, but slowly as people see it's not as bad a place as people think." 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