Expanding Experiences With The Passport Party Project


Volunteering and giving back has always been an important part of my life. I've participated in several travel blogger charity events but I don't think I've experienced so much glee to give back as I did at The Passport Party Project.  The event is a global awareness initiative that gifts 10 passports to undeserved girls in 10 cities across the U.S. Travel blogger Tracey Friley of One Brown Girl gathers travel bloggers in every city to volunteer and guide girls into the expansive world of traveling.  So it was a given that when the event landed in my city of Chicago, I was totally there.


The party kicks off in the morning and we lined a table with supplies to create personal travel vision boards.


Of course, no party is complete in my book unless there is quality sugar involved.  These cupcakes represent a range of flavors and nations.


We provided encouragement for the girls with tales of our travels, a show & tell session and lots of silly  travel photo ops like the above pic.


This is my travel vision board, with a beautiful image of the Taj Mahal and India as the focus.


Jazmin won the travel vision board contest with a panorama of images showing South America, Europe and Asia. She won a bright yellow suitcase to start her travels in style.


The girls did an impressive job of designing exciting travel vision boards that displayed their destination dreams. It was so inspiring to watch them realize that the whole world is a possibility for them. Expedia sponsors the event and each girl was supplied with a passport photo, a passport form and a check to apply for their passport. I felt that I was given so much by just being around all of  the enthusiasm and hope for travel. Traveling broadens perspectives and exposes you to so many rich experiences. I was honored to be a part of the Passport Party Project. Helping to influence girls to open up their world views is a powerful task. We ended the party with an essential element for any global event- a conga line.


Comments

Terri said…
How fun! I volunteered for the NYC party and had a great time. Those cupcakes look fabulous!
September 19, 2012 at 5:05 AM
Fly Girl said…
Terri, these passport parties are always fun, whatever city they are in. Thanks for visiting.
September 19, 2012 at 6:04 AM
Unknown said…
I never really know how to react to a passport party once it is over, mostly because I'm so focused on the girls and making sure they have a good time AND get pumped about travel. Seeing your recap gives me some perspective. And seeing that Conga Line photo makes me CRACK UP. Thanks for being there; I couldn't have done it without you!
September 20, 2012 at 9:34 AM
Fly Girl said…
Tracey,
Thank YOU for creating such a wonderful concept and following it through. I hope to see you in PR next year!
September 20, 2012 at 9:48 AM
Angela Myers said…
Hahaha, it really was a great day! I was done after that Conga line. Total Hilarity!
September 22, 2012 at 4:23 AM
Fly Girl said…
Angela, so much fun, especially when you kept swiping all of the good stickers!
September 23, 2012 at 7:29 PM
2girlsbikini said…
I cannot confirm or deny that I was swiping all of the good stickers. *__*
September 25, 2012 at 12:43 PM
Andrew Graeme Gould said…
What a great idea these passport parties are. Looks like a lot of fun, too!
October 2, 2012 at 10:35 PM
Fly Girl said…
Andrew, they are a lot of fun and they help girls consider a future of travel that might not have occurred to them before.
October 3, 2012 at 5:48 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Traveling Through A Liberian Childhood

Image
I like to explore the world with books as much as I like to actually travel. A well-written narrative can transport you to places that you'd never experience with just superficial details like photos and descriptions. I've been interviewing writers about the criteria they use to select books for Summer reading and it made me think about my own general reading criteria. As a journalist, I'm really drawn to biographies, autobiographies and memoirs more than fiction. There's something about using the facts to entice readers into your world that gets me. It's no coincidence that some of my favorite writers--Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Zora Neale Hurston, Hemingway, started out as journalists. So when I glimpsed The House at Sugar Beach , at my local bookstore and saw it was a memoir written by a journalist, it was pretty much a done deal that I would buy it. Now it wasn't only that the author Helene Cooper was a journalist, it was that she was a Liberian journalist chro
Read more

Puerto Rico's Taino Culture

Image
The original inhabitants of the Caribbean region of North America were the Arawak, Taino and Carib  native peoples.  The Tainos are a subgroup of the Arawaks and are recognized as the founders of the island of Boriken or Puerto Rico.  These were the people who offered a peaceful welcome to Columbus in 1493.  They didn't know the cruelty and violence that would follow his so-called "discovery" of the land that they had cultivated for centuries. Despite official government pronouncements that the Taino have been killed off by the massacres and slavery that followed in Columbus' wake, they live on.  As demonstrated in the photo above by  members of  the Puerto Rico Folklorico Dance & Culture Cultural Cente r, Taino traditions, food and names remain strong. Throughout Puerto Rico, town names like Mayaquez, Utuado and Caquas echo the Taino language as do the musical instrument maracas and hamaca or hammock. Legends of Taino warriors, like Hatuey, who organized the ba
Read more

Switzerland's Fete Des Vignerons

Image
                                               Once every generation, the centuries-old viticultural festival, Fete des Vignerons, unfolds in Vevey, Switzerland. Watching this spectacle of music, dancing, wine and fanciful costumes, felt like I had been transported to something out of a Dr. Seuss story. With a law that prohibits the fest from taking place more than five times in a century, I felt incredibly lucky to witness this celebration of Swiss wine traditions dating back to the 17th century.  Some of the fetes 5,500 performers in costumes strolled the narrow streets of Vevey after a show that featured fairies, bees, royal courts, playing cards and 17th-century wine growers. The performance was in French but the drama transcended language barriers. It's a difficult experience to describe but if I had to sum it up, I would explain it as the magic of Cirque Du Soleil combined with the pageantry of the Olympics, topped with the history of folk celebrations.  Take a peek at my v
Read more