OAT Honors "Mama Susan," 10-time traveler Susan Rickert

10-time OAT traveler Susan Rickert was honored with the first "Giving Back to the World We Travel" Award. Susan has personally raised more than $100,000 in support of the five Karatu schools in Tanzania that OAT travelers visit. “My last child was off to school. So, I decided that now I belong to the world.” With that sentiment, Susan set off on an Overseas Adventure Travel journey to Tanzania, where she had once served for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer. Her trip included a stop at a school similar to the one she had taught at more than 35 years earlier. There, she found a classroom with a dirt floor and no roof, windows, or doors, in which a single teacher was presenting lessons to 100 children. “That was a turning point in my life,” Susan recalls. “I was so moved, I decided to collect money for the school on the spot.” She has been collecting money ever since. “This remains my #1 passion besides my children,” she says. In honor of her extraordinary accomplishments, Grand Circle Foundation presented Susan with its first Giving Back to the World We Travel Award. Because of her dedication and enthusiasm, she is known as "Mama Susan" to over 1,300 Karatu students. OAT travelers visit the village of Karatu, the gateway to the African bush, on our Best of Kenya & Tanzania and Safari Serengeti: Tanzania Lodge & Tented Safari adventures.

OAT Traveler Donates Textbooks to Morocco School

Patricia Murphree of Austin, Texas was so impressed with the efforts on her Trip Leader Aziz Kebiri on her Morocco Sahara Odyssey that she wanted to do something special in return. An employee of Thomson Learning, the second-largest educational publisher in the U.S., Patricia contacted the company's President and Chief Financial Officer to see if she could arrange the donation of textbooks to the Dar ET-Taleb organization in Tinighir. Thomson Learning paid for the freight; and the textbooks themselves, she told an instructor at Dar ET-Taleb, were donated "by good people who care about making our world a better place, as you and Aziz do."

Our Generous Travelers

We are honored that, after a visit to a school or other sponsored site, many travelers have been inspired by the sound of children’s voices or the touch of a child’s hand to extend Foundation giving another degree by making contributions on their own initiative. A portion of the profits from every Grand Circle and Overseas Adventure Travel trip is donated to the Foundation, and we are grateful to all of our travelers who make the Foundation’s efforts possible simply by choosing to travel with us. We are especially grateful to those extraordinary travelers who give so generously on their own to help carry on our mission of giving back to the communities we visit.

If you would like to make a donation to a school or site supported by Grand Circle Foundation, please make your check payable to "Grand Circle Foundation," complete the Grand Circle Foundation form (which you can download below) and mail both to: Grand Circle Foundation, 347 Congress Street, Boston MA 02210. You may reach the Foundation staff via email at foundation@oattravel.com.

Download Grand Circle Foundation Donation Form