When I was in college, a friend of our instructor was a chaperone and she always had our day's schedual, kept us "inline", constant reminder of what was next (friendly but motherly) and most of all defended us when things went wrong. What I mean by that is one morning the tour group left without our little group (we had split 15 girls into 3 groups). We were using the restroom and come out to see everyone had left. To our chaperone's credit, she had a copy of the schedual and directions so we arrived to the appt on tiem and a little winded!
She was also willing to wear somethign bright that would enable us to pick her out in a huge crowd.
My fondest memory of this woman was how much she cared and how much fun we had with her too. She made sure we were ladies but knew when to let us have some fun! New York in the eyes of a 18 year old farm girl was amazing adn she made it even more!
Please have fun, look at it as another great adventure.