The Travel Industry Has a Passion for Compassion:
Are some of our feathered friends looking forward to a more hopeful future thanks to the beating international travel is taking from the COVID-19 virus?
Well, that appears to hold true for some Australian bird species, with Travel Courier learning of a tour company that has an employee using suddenly new-found free time to help safeguard different birds. And her touching story is only one of many as travel industry members use a lull in business to help make the world a better place in different ways. So, Travel Courier is using this space to introduce you to just a few of the many industry members who are currently practicing random acts of kindness even while having to cope with tough times themselves.
Mikey Sadowski
Intrepid Travel
School’s not out for Intrepid Travel’s North American marketing director Mikey Sadowski.
With Intrepid suspending global operations through May, Sadowski recently used some of his spare time to be a remote guest lecturer for a group of senior strategic marketing students at Toronto’s Ryerson University, speaking about the impact of COVID-19 on the travel industry.
Sadowski, whose company encourages its employees to do volunteer work, wanted to use this tough situation as a teaching moment.
“I’m trying to use any additional time to help the wider travel community, specifically the future generation of travel marketers and business leaders,” he says. “I’ve been using my time to guest lecture and prepare learning materials for hospitality and tourism programs, specifically my alma mater, Ryerson University. While we are still working through the answers ourselves, this is a learning opportunity unlike anything else, and we can use this as a real-life classroom for crisis management. Right now, it’s not about me, or Intrepid Travel, but instead about what we can do for our community and use our experience in the industry for good.”
George Friedmann
Windsor Arms hotel
The president of Toronto’s Windsor Arms hotel and his staff wanted to make sure that those on the front lines of Toronto’s fight against COVID-19 wouldn’t go hungry as they struggle to halt the spread of the virus.
April 2 saw George Friedmann and hotel employees join forces with Cerise Fine Catering to prepare 500 box lunches for first responders at Toronto’s Michael Garron Hospital and 1,000 snacks for health care workers at the city’s University Health Network.
“It is difficult for someone who is used to doing and creating things to stand by and watch the world unravel without trying to assist in some sort of way,” says Friedmann, who helped prepare the food and load it into delivery vehicles. “Given that we have no medical knowledge or infrastructure, we looked at what we can do to still help in a medical situation. Accordingly, we looked at the first responders, the people that we could assist, allowing them to focus on what is needed, thus we came up with providing meals for them. Not because they couldn’t afford it, but because we want them to focus on their primary tasks, providing the best health care for Canadians through these unprecedented times.”
The Windsor Arms is pleased to do our part during this difficult time. In partnership with Cerise Fine Catering we have delivered 500 boxed lunches to first responders at Michael Garron Hospital and 1,000 snacks to the University Health Network. #WindsorArms pic.twitter.com/lEgNXiRSrr
— Windsor Arms Hotel (@windsorarms) April 2, 2020
Friedmann says the effort was “extremely rewarding. Not only did the recipients appreciate this small gesture, but many strangers and unrelated people have reached out to us to express their gratitude and to offer their assistance if needed in the future. The unexpected reward came from seeing how people effectively embrace each other in solidarity, putting aside the usual differences in everyday life and garnering for the common good.”
Friedmann says this wasn’t the first time his hotel has lent a helping hand and he’s confident it won’t be the last.
“We have done many volunteer projects and not-for-profit initiatives in the past. The real approach is how we react to whatever the world brings and to try and assist on an urgent basis. In terms of going forward, we have the full intention of doing our very best to support as and when needed.”
Janine Duffy
ECHIDNA WALKABOUT
Janine Duffy and her coworker Hayley Forster are thinking of creature comforts these days. And among creatures they want to have a comfortable existence are Australia’s iconic koalas.
Forster and Duffy are with Echidna Walkabout, which has tours showcasing Australian wildlife and Indigenous cultures, and the two are doing more volunteering now because of the tourism slowdown.
Wildlife guide Forster has increased her volunteering with WOTCH: Wildlife of the Central Highlands, spending three days a week in forest searching for threatened animals particularly hard hit by Australia’s recent bushfires. Her targets are the Greater Glider, Sooty Owl, Powerful Owl, and the endangered Leadbeaters Possum. WOTCH’s research helps protect those animals from forest logging. Forster’s altruism also includes doing a lot of report writing and data entry at home for the group.
“As a result of the downturn we haven’t been able to employ our koala researchers, so I have gone back to doing what I started,” Duffy says. “Our Wild Koala Research Project in the You Yangs has been running continuously for 14 years, at a frequency of six days per week all year. The data collected is particularly important at the moment, as this koala population is the only low-density one in the state of Victoria with long-term population records. I started the project years ago, and now I’m back doing all the koala research! But that’s okay, I love it.”
Echidna Walkabout’s Wild Koala Research aims to discover the tree species koalas are using and feeding on, monitoring population growth or decline. More about it can be found at www.echidnawalkabout.com.au/about/conservation.
Craig "Wacca" Wachholz
Let’s Go Surfing
What do Australian surfer dudes and dudettes do after they have to suspend the classes their surfing school offers to both paying customers and a seemingly endless number of groups representing people struggling financially and who often simply can’t afford to pay?
Well, when they work for Sydney-based Let’s Go Surfing they simply redirect their altruistic energy.
Let’s Go Surfing’s brochure lists the various courses it offers clients who can afford to pay and also a staggering number of organizations representing the likes of homeless people it’s happy to teach how to ride waves for free.
The classes have been put on hold as authorities have closed the beaches they’re offered on to try to stem the spread of coronavirus.
Let’s Go Surfing’s Craig Wachholz — whose company’s motto is “Changing lives one wave at a time” — told Travel Courier in early April that company staff were working on a temporary company shutdown and then would quickly again be demonstrating compassion.
“We still haven’t had a moment to breathe ourselves (while working on suspending operations) but as soon as we do batten down all hatches we are looking at ways we can support others in need. We are thinking we will retool our people-movers to food-and-care package delivery vans for the elderly and those in need and help our local charities feed the homeless etc!” he reports.
Joel Marchal
Celeste Mountain Lodge
Joel Marchal is working to ensure that his staff aren’t left up the creek without a paddle financially by coronavirus.
Marchal, who once ran Vancouver-based Latin America specialist Global Connections, relocated to Costa Rica, building the Celeste Mountain Lodge in the country’s interior. He decided to temporarily close the lodge after Costa Rica closed its airports in mid-March.
Now he’s devoting his time to ensuring his staff will have some source of income even though he fears it may be the better part of a year before the Celeste Mountain Lodge starts welcoming guests again.
Ontario BDMs & sales reps thank travel agents
Ontario-based BDMs and Sales Reps from Transat, Uplift, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Princess, Cunard, NCL, Hurtigruten, WestJet, Carnival, Insight, Canlink, Goway, Palace Resorts and Trafalgar have a message for travel agents: we miss you, thank you, and we’re all in this together.
