Paul Decker is president of the Valley Forge
Convention and Visitors Bureau, a four-time
there? Tourism Cares exists so we can stop Beckham. “Many came from as far as the Tourism Cares sponsoring organization.
saying‘there used to be’about natural,cul-
West Coast and all came with purpose and
tural and historic resources and sites that
exuberance”he added.
mean so much to Americans,as well as the
growingnumberofglobaltravelerswehost.”
Rusty on Civil War history? The Spangler
The organization motto says it all...
Farm was the setting for some of the most
“Restoring the past. Preserving the future.”
significantbattlesupportfunctionsthatcon-
tributed to the Union’s victory in tactically
Inthatcontext,itsTourismCaresforAmerica
significant Gettysburg. The farmhouse also
initiative brings together travel and tourism became a Union field hospital treating
industry volunteers to clean up and restore
wounded from both sides, where Rebel
culturally and historically significant visitor-
Brigadier General Lewis A.Armistead shuf-
related sites in dire need of care and rejuve-
nation. Thinkpost-KatrinaNewOrleansand
fled off this mortal coil.
the Mississippi Gulf Coast; Ellis Island, NY;
MountVernon,VA andVirginia City,NV. And
Tourism Cares’ clean-up mission was a for-
Gettysburg,PA. (More about that later.)
midable one, as the volunteers veered
valiantly through dense thickets of briar and
Among its other programs are scholarships bramble, not-at-all flexible tree trunks and
for“those who follow us,”be they students, roots...and ubiquitous pockets of poison ivy
interns or employees seeking to increase
and oak (the chief casualty-producer, as
their professional expertise... and horizons.
Beckham and staff learned in after-action
Experience the Industry allows students to
“shadow” industry pros for mentoring and
reports).
networkingattravelassociationconventions
and conferences. And the Destination
At day’s end,much of the 80-acre farmland
Initiative Project is an experiential research
was laid bare of underbrush, thickets, tree-
program through which tourism curricula
choking vines, and weeds and shrubs that
undergrads design and implement tourism almost obliterated stone field boundaries.
development plans and community volun- All that remained on theTourism Cares bat-
teer events for a destination.
tlefield were large trees that were to be
removed later by the National Park Service.
Beyond its educational components,
Tourism Cares awards special grants to sites
chosen together with corporate partner
I’veparticipatedinfourTourismCaresclean-
donors,and worldwide grants recommend-
up projects (Mount Vernon; Virginia City;
ed by the Tourism Cares Blue Ribbon Panel
New Orleans and Gettysburg) over the past
of conservation, preservation, restoration
fiveyears,andIcanattestthere’snogreater-
and tourism experts. if not oxymoronic - reward than the exhila-
rating exhaustion of a day of hard physical
To put a local face on Tourism Cares, one
labor for a purposeful cause.
needs to travel no further back in time than
to April of this year or in distance to
Gettysburg,the Pennsylvania site of the Civil
VolunteerMaryKielywasinGettysburgafter
War’s most deadly battle.
having attended the 2008 post-Katrina clean
up of New Orleans’ Louis Armstrong Park
We all learned the bloody facts in school,
with a travel industry significant other.
but few know how the hallowed landscape
on which that nation-changing conflict has She put it this way:“You looked around the
changed over nearly 150 years since it took cityandsawthehurricane’sdevastationand
place. There are rows of buildings where
thought,‘one of those homes under water
none stood then,and tree lines on formerly
could have been mine, or a family mem-
wide-openexpansesthatmakeitdifficultfor
today’s visitor or student to conceptualize
ber’s.’ And all of the sudden, it wasn’t just
the fluid,fast-moving chain of events of July
something you saw onTV a thousand miles
3-4,1863.
away. It was something very personal and
compelling,and being there as part of that
Enter the Tourism Caretakers, a legendary
one small effort to restore a degree of nor-
(in their own minds),high-spirited corps of malcy to life in New Orleans became very
volunteers well armed with rakes, hoes,
important to me.”
handsaws,and pruning tools,and poised to
accomplish a critical battlefield mission.
Now Kiely is“hooked”onTourism Cares and
“We were proud to welcome some 300
its mission, as you will be, too, once you
tourism industry volunteers from all over
make the first commitment to giving thanks
North America to the little town of
and to giving back.
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to begin the
restoration of the grounds of the Spangler
For more information about Tourism Cares,
Farm to their 1863 appearance,” said visit them online at
www.tourismcares.org. Photos courtesy of Monroe V. Davids
Mid-Atlantic EVENTS Magazine 75
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