December 11, 2007...9:53 pm
Giving Back
Here are some of the ways that our destination partners are engaging their clients and communities as we give back.
Clients
ECT, our DMC partner in the Dominican Republic, won an award for “Most Outstanding Event at an Incentive Program” at the 2007 Trophées de l’Événement in France. Developed and managed for Elebor/EOS, the program for which ECT took this award was a humanitarian teambuilding event for Allergan, a global specialty pharmaceutical and medical device company. With over 450 participants, ECT broke the group down into teams of 30; each team assigned different projects ranging from renovation and painting, to gardening and construction of a children’s playground. ECT’s coordination of the full-day teambuilding included a team of 50 staff members, with two red-cross medics on hand, and culminated in an emotional moment shared between the participants and children from the village.
And sometimes, giving back does not necessarily involve a teambuilding effort on such a grand scales as demonstrated when ECT welcomed a group of psychiatrists who were holding their annual retreat in the Dominican Republic a week after Tropic Storm Noel in November 2007. Although the area of Punta Cana, where they stayed was not affected, the storm left some communities being cut off by flood waters. According to the meeting planner who was also onsite with the group, “Coming at the end of the severe tropical storm was also something that while not planned, added immensely to the program. The group raised on site a total of $700 USD and donated $600 in clothes to go for the victims of the storm. ECT’s representative, Ernesto, was given the task of getting these donations to the proper folks - cash to be used to buy mosquito nets and clothes for the folks.”
Our DMCs
Pam Arthurton of Carib World Travel in Antigua is one of the three women who conceived the idea of Antigua’s Caribbean Literary Festival in 2006. The annual event attracts internationally acclaimed authors who are inspiring local students to read books and in turn write. Part of the proceeds of the festival go toward the rebuilding of the National Library with was destroyed by an earthquake in 1972 and is only now being rebuilt.
Giving back to children was also a philosophy of the late Johnny Cash who with his wife, June Carter Cash, spent many months at their home in Barrett Town, just outside of Montego Bay, Jamaica. What few know is that the Cashes donated money to build a family house in the SOS Children’s Village in Jamaica in 1974, and later purchased a home of their own next to the village. Now a private venue open to small groups, Great Vacations, our DMC partner in Jamaica, works closely within the area to arrange special activities both at the venue and with the children of the village.
These are but a few examples of which we are proud to share.
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