Travelers Go to Great Lengths for Their Causes

Patrick Veitch will show you a secret Australian beach where kangaroos play in the surf and eat from your hand.

Janet Seward knows of a rooftop ride on a steam engine that winds through the Valley of the Volcanoes in Ecuador.

If it’s culture in the Big City you’re after, look no further than Marc Ravenhill: his theater getaways to New York and London are as hot as “Ragtime” tickets.

From exotic to domestic, these people are making travel plans.

But not for profit.

Leaders of nonprofit organizations are finding that custom tours not only educate people about the goals of the group, they also promote friendship and, in some cases, raise funds.

Take the trip to Australia that Veitch is planning for supporters of Opera Pacific: “We’ll visit the Queensland Cultural Complex in Brisbane, the Victorian Arts Centre in Melbourne, the Sydney Opera House and end our trip in Port Douglas by the Barrier Reef--one of the most heavenly resorts in the world,” says Veitch, the general director of Opera Pacific who once was at the helm of Opera Australia.

The cost: about $6,000 per person, with a percentage--not yet determined--going to Opera Pacific. “People come away from these trips as lifelong friends because they spend about two weeks together doing something they really care about,” says Veitch, who is planning the trip for next spring.

Seward, secretary of the Collector’s Council of the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana, knows the rewards group excursions can bring.

“Council members are interested in ethnic art, so we visit private collections, galleries, museums and take one domestic and one international trip per year,” says Seward, who is overseeing the excursion to Ecuador in August. “We come away more excited than ever about the cultural art we have at the Bowers.”

The trip will include a visit to the famous Highlands’ craft market of Otavalo and a trek to Salasaca, where the inhabitants are famous for their weaving techniques. Tour-goers will also visit Cuenca, site of the Archeological Museum of Popular Arts and Quito, home to Ecuador’s most famous artist, Guayasamin.

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When Ravenhill works with a travel company to plan large group tours to London and New York on behalf of South Coast Repertory, he tries to assure compatibility among the participants.

“We get from 70 to 120 people on our London trips, so we divide them into groups of 10,” once they reach the city, says Ravenhill, SCR’s assistant director of advancement. “Who gets into what group depends on how many times they’ve been to London--that sort of thing,” he says. “Each person fills out an extensive questionnaire before leaving. We want them to be with people who have the same goals.”

Since the Costa Mesa theater founded its travel program four years ago, “we’ve raised about $60,000,” Ravenhill says. “If you pay $1,600 for a trip, $160 of that goes to SCR.”

For the second year in a row, supporters of the Philharmonic Society of Orange County will attend the Salzburg Music Festival. Next month, they will enjoy concerts by the world’s great orchestras and dine at the famous haunts of Mozart’s birthplace.

“The people who went last year really saw examples of the quality the philharmonic strives for--what we’re after,” says Dean Corey, the society’s executive director.

“If you don’t do that, you can become satisfied with what’s happening locally, not know what’s really possible.”

Corey plans to take philharmonic supporters to Scotland next summer for the Edinburgh International Festival, which offers “theater, dance, opera and music,” he says.

“It has a broader scope than the Salzburg, with layers of festivals offering as many as 1,200 events.”

The strength of these trips is that they stimulate interest in an organization, Corey explains. “That interest helps build support.”

Veitch’s Australian adventure will offer participants great opera at world-class venues. But it will also offer food, wine and shopping experiences.

“I’ll take everyone to a restaurant perched over a river in the middle of nowhere,” he says. “We’ll fly there by water-plane from Sydney and dine on food that is like the best in France.”

There will also be catered dinners at special locales, such as a “national trust home,” Veitch says. Not to mention a sampling of Australia’s fine wines and a leisurely stroll down High Street, home to “75 top-level antique shops.”

As for that secret beach with the herd of tame kangaroos, well, “it’s magical,” Veitch says. “Few people know about it.”