Great idea, but oh bother, the money

My mom is thinking about doing the Koman 3-day walk in Seattle this September, and she would like me to do it with her. I've been itching to get on the Amtrak train again, and this may be the opportunity for it. I did some preliminary looking and found that fares would be $218. Hey, not a bad price! I can handle that.

After services on Saturday, I mentioned to my best friend, M, the possibility of going on the train to Seattle. She was excited and wondered if she and her three kids could come along. It would be so much fun to travel together! They are in a very tight financial situation right now, and that kind of money causes one to pause and think.

But then. That awful "but." I looked again and to my dismay and horror, the price I'd told her was not for round trip, but only one way. The total cost for all of us (after AAA discount and before taxes) is about $1,018 - for coach seats. My excitement for the coming trip just fell out the window.

I've thought of writing Amtrak and ask if there is some way they would be able to give us greatly discounted seats because 1)We are home schooling families and would use the trip for educational purposes, 2) They have a Schools On the Train program that runs on the Cascades train from Seattle to Portland, but because we are in a different state, we don't have access to that 3) We are traveling to Seattle to support a charitable cause, 4) we would, in return for Amtrak's generosity in supporting a charitable cause, have the kids each write a report on the experience and what they learned, and finally 4) we would do all we could to support Amtrak, and to only speak well of the company when conversing with other people.

Do any of you know who I could send this type of letter to? Are there any travel tricks that could get us highly discounted tickets for September 1st (return September 10?)

I would love to have M and her kids join Tony, DeeDee and I for what could be a trip of the lifetime for these kids, not to mention the opportunity to support a cause so dear to my mom's heart right now. She is almost two and a half years cancer free.