[Travelandtourism] Updates on the 2014 Fundraiser Trip and Ideas for 2015

[cheryl echevarria]

Good morning everyone:
As many of you know the NFB Travel & Tourism, has an annual fundraiser trip to raise funds for the work we do in the ways of advocating for the blind, whether in Congress in Washington, DC or in our local states.
This money is used to fund our division. 
Updates on the Nashville Trip 2014, unfortunately, this trip will more than likely be cancelled unless we have 23 people book by May 15th.
So, those of you who did pay a deposit will have a few options, please continue to read.
We are starting our planning for 2015, we have a few people who have posted ideas. FYI, those of you who do post an idea, this is also singalling that you would like to go as well.  Interested people, this is not only for the blind, we encourage you to ask all friends and family members to come as well.  Anyone can attend, we would like to keep this as adult only and without the kids, but if you have no other options, we will see what we can do.
I know many people thought that we might go back to Utah, this is still an option, but not enough to do as a fundraiser event.
To make any money on these we need a  minimum of 30 people for a bus trip, or 36 people for a cruise and depending on the destination 10-20 people for everything else.
Travel & Tourism is also having a committee just for fundraising:
Secretary Margo Downey, is interested in being on this committee, any paid member of the division can also be on the committee, those of you who are not members yet, blind or sighted we don't discriminate, the annual dues are $10 a year, if you are attending National Convention our meeting will be on July 3rd from 1-4:30 PM and another announcement about this meeting will be going out with what we will be doing.
So the ideas are and we also need time of the year to go, as well, off season is better meaning, not during the summer or holiday, spring break, you get the ideas. I also have the rates for group travel for 2015:
A cruise - Some ideas are to Bermuda, Caribbean, Alaska, Hawaii, and Mediterranean. Cruises must be 5 days minimum to get any fundraiser money from the cruise lines.
A trip to Puerto Rico - No Passports Needed, US Territory, plus depending on when we go, I can ask NFB of PR, President, Alpidio Rolon, if we can meet with their members for lunch or a meeting, Nelson my dear husband, was born and raised there, and he can get us the ins and outs of places that might not be the typical tourist places.
Utah - Salt Lake City - no Las Vegas this time, and no Grand Canyon, to far from where we would like to go.
New York City Trip - No none of these were thoughts of mine, other interested people have submitted these.
London, U.K. - Passports will be needed, only 10 minimum, people will be needed for this trip.
We need you to vote, we need you to submit ideas to info at nfbtravel.org, so that way we can track what people are voting on.
This needs to be determined by our National Meeting in July.
Those of you who have put deposits down on the trip to Nashville, you have 2 options
1. You will get a full refund.2. The amount will be posted to your account for the 2015 trip
We look eagerly to your responses.
Please reply to info at nfbtravel.org and not to cherylandmaxx at hotmail.com
Thank you
Respectfully,


Cheryl Echevarria, PresidentNFB Travel & Tourism DivisionNational Federation of the Blind631-236-5138info at nfbtravel.org
Disabled Entrepreneur of the Year 2012 of NY StateOffering the Best in Meaningful Travel Experiences for Everyone!Cheryl Echevarria, Ownerwww.echevarriatravel.com631-456-5394reservations at echevarriatravel.com

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