Planning and implementing tours for people with disabilities is a big (and rewarding!) project, requiring extensive planning, team work, and much hard work. Our administrative staff, our program planning staff, support staff, and tour leaders all bring extensive years of experience and education to make your vacation a success.
The tour leader and tour chaperones are the most important elements to giving you a safe and fun vacation. Most of our tour staff are from the Midwest, Ohio, Georgia, Florida, California, and New England. Tour leaders and chaperones are given criminal background checks, orientation, and coaching. Most tour chaperones come from the human service fields and have been recreation directors, social service workers, group home managers, or similar. In addition we require all tour leaders to have much experience managing and assisting leading tours before being in charge of a group. Besides familiarity with North America and western Europe, our tour staff have lead tours through eastern Europe, former Soviet Union republics, India, China, Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America. Both people and travel skills are required of our tour leaders.
Office staff often have college degrees, many years of tour and travel background, plus years of working with people with disabilities. Planning tour components is very different from leading tours, so different skills are required. These dedicated folks enter data, perform accounting, run airline tickets, write itineraries, recruit and train volunteers and leaders, and plan and coordinate all components of the tours.
And most important of all: most of us can sing, dance, and paddle a canoe (maybe not at the same time)!
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