Giving Back in Every Region

Grand Circle Foundation Honorary Director Lech Walesa once said, “The thing that lies at the foundation of positive change is service to a fellow human being.” The spirit was evident throughout Grand Circle’s network of regional offices last year, as associates around the world took it upon themselves to perform works of service for others.

Associates, Program Directors, and Trip Leaders arranged a very special event for 250 students from a very poor school outside Istanbul. Though they lived close by, many had never seen the historical sights of the city or the Bosporus Strait. Five busloads of children, selected on the basis of scholastic achievement, were taken on a fun-filled sightseeing tour that included lunch in the gardens of Topkapi Palace.

Our Croatia team led a community service event at a rehabilitation center that works with young people challenged with a variety of cerebral palsies. The center had requested that learning boards be made with different materials on them that children could touch. Presenting the two boards they created, the Grand Circle team met the children and saw their smiles and joy. “For each of us, it was a great learning experience,” associate Zeljka Galic Cimic says. “As we learned from those children, in order to have a full and enjoyable life, all you need is love and a big smile.”

Big smiles were also on hand in Costa Rica, where our team led a successful community service event at Los Llanos School. In all, 17 associates at Grand Circle’s office in San Jose, community members, family, and friends painted the entire school, inside and out—even donating $700 toward supplies for the project. “We had a wonderful time doing this, and it feels great to help in some way the communities we visit with our travelers,” associate Wolfgang Brunner says. The annual Rebuilding Together Boston event, which gathers Boston associates for one day to help refurbish the homes of low-income families, served as a model for a similar event in China. In Xian, our team painted all of the windows and doors at the Shao Ping Dian Primary School, a new Foundation site. A spontaneous collection on behalf of one of the poorest mothers of the school further demonstrated the power of service to a fellow human being.