Doing Some Good on Vacation

Frank Celio wanted to give his three teenage sons a vacation they’d remember, so he took them to a dusty New Mexican town where they stayed with a poor Navajo family and spent the week hauling rocks for a new community center.

They paid for the privilege too. “It was a lot more fun than sitting around on the beach,” said Celio, a surveyor from Ohio who is divorced and has taken his boys on a cruise and to resorts in the past. Those trips seemed tame when compared with living in a traditional Navajo hogan and getting to know a medicine man.

“It certainly was different,” acknowledged 17-year-old Tony Celio. “I had to work really hard, but I liked being able to make a difference for someone else.”

Exactly the point. The Celios joined a team under the auspices of the Minnesota-based nonprofit Global Citizens Network to help complete a much-needed project for a community that couldn’t afford it.

Their idea--to use a vacation to do good--is appealing to a growing number of families, especially those with older kids. They’re building houses with the group Habitat for Humanity and rebuilding burned churches with the Quakers. They’re studying wild horses with Earthwatch, helping to maintain Appalachian and Colorado mountain trails, working alongside archeologists on remote Southwestern digs and with historians on national forest land.

“You get dirty, scraped up and bug bit, but at the end of the day, you can step back and see what you’ve accomplished,” said Appalachian Mountain Club spokesman Rob Burbank.

“A lot of parents want to open their children’s eyes, to show them everyone isn’t as well off as they are,” added Kim Regnier of the Global Citizens Network.

“Parents who have been involved with the civil rights movement want to share that with their children,” observed Harold Confer, who coordinates the Quaker church-building project.

Some of these trips, like those sponsored by the Quakers, cost barely anything, aside from transportation. Meals and lodging may be included. Others, especially overseas and environmental efforts, can cost as much as a week at a resort. But these vacations are often tax deductible.

They can also be more meaningful. “We got to know the people there, and they got to know us. It was much more educational for the kids than going to a resort,” said Marty Gehring, who spent two weeks in the Yucatan with her family digging foundations for cinder-block homes with Habitat for Humanity.

Of course, it wasn’t all sweat and toil, she noted. Her 12-year-old daughter made friends with the Indian children. There was also time to explore Mayan ruins, swim under waterfalls and tour Mexico City.

“The best part was doing it together, sharing the experience,” added June Huebner, a retired nurse from Indiana who spent more than $1,500 (plus air fare) to take her two 12-year-old grandsons to the Crow Canyon Archeological Center in southwestern Colorado so they could help the archeologists searching for remnants of the ancient Anasazi Indian culture.

“The digging was the best, to see things before anyone anywhere,” said Damon Spragia, one of the lucky grandsons who pronounced the trip “the best vacation I ever had.”

Those overseeing the trips are just as happy: Work is getting accomplished that otherwise wouldn’t get done, they explain. The cross-cultural efforts not only improve lives in poor areas but promote understanding. Archeologists, historians, scientists and environmentalists are pleased they have the opportunity to pass on their enthusiasm to a new generation.

Huebner can’t wait until her other grandchildren are old enough to participate. “It was a lot of money for me, but it goes to a good cause,” she explained. “And it was an experience the boys couldn’t have had any other way.”

Here are some sources:

* “Free Vacations & Bargain Adventures in the USA” by Evelyn Kaye ($19.95, Blue Panda Publications) lists more than two dozen volunteer adventures around the country. Call (800) 800-8147 to order. Ask for Kaye’s list of top 10 free vacations.

* Global Citizens Network, a nonprofit group committed to cross-cultural understanding, sponsors building projects in Belize, Guatemala, Kenya and St. Vincent. Children as young as 7 have participated. Call (800) 644-9292.

* The Quaker Work Camp has sent hundreds of volunteers to Dillon, S.C., and Greensboro, Ala., to rebuild churches. The weeklong program costs $150 plus transportation. Meals and lodging are provided. Call (803) 774-1965.

* During the past seven years since it was started, about 7,000 volunteers have joined Passport in Time programs to work with professional archeologists and historians on historic preservation projects on federal Forest Service lands. Those with disabilities are welcomed. Some projects provide food and lodging. Call the PIT Clearinghouse at (800) 281-9176 for a list of projects.

* Habitat for Humanity has been made famous by participants, including Jimmy Carter and Hillary Clinton, for building and renovating low-cost housing, one structure at a time, with volunteer labor and tax-deductible donations. Families may participate for a day at a project near their home or for several weeks as far away as Fiji and New Zealand. Call (800) HABITAT.

* The Colorado Trail Foundation sends crews, a week at a time, to maintain the 500 miles of trail mostly above 10,000 feet between Denver and Durango. Accommodations, meals and equipment are provided. Call (303) 526-0809.

* The New Hampshire-based Appalachian Mountain Club organizes volunteer trail building and maintenance efforts in the White Mountains. Families may also adopt a trail in which they provide basic maintenance for a portion of trail, from picking up litter to cutting brush. There are specific crews for teens. Food and lodging typically is provided. Call the AMC at (603) 466-2721.

* The nonprofit environmental organization Earthwatch sends volunteers to work with scientists around the world on projects designed to heighten environmental awareness while collecting scientific data. More than 50,000 volunteers have participated in more than 2,000 projects in the past 25 years. Projects range from studying Costa Rica’s caterpillars to the impact of whale watching on whales to a survey of historic stone farmhouses in France. The minimum age is 16. Costs start at $600 for a week. Call (800) 776-0188.

* The Crow Canyon Archeological Center in Cortez, Colo., offers a few weeks each summer (this summer’s programs are all filled) in which parents, grandparents and children in the seventh grade and older can participate in a working archeological dig, gleaning insights into the ancient Anasazi communities that once flourished near Mesa Verde National Park. Cost is $795 for adults and $595 for the teens. Call (800) 422-8975, Ext. 142.

* Florida Park Service invites volunteers to serve as campground hosts. They work four hours a day doing everything from cleaning bathrooms to maintaining trails in return for free camping. Call (850) 488-8242. Others states have similar programs.

Taking the Kids appears the first and third week of every month.