Below is a brief piece from a summer issue of Marie Claire Magazine in their “World Reports” section, about volunteer travel, with a brief quote (all that’s left from a longer interview–but I know too well, from the other side of the equation, how that goes and interviews get cut down to bites) from me and mention of my book, at the end. It is the first time (to my knowledge) that the book has been mentioned in editorial content in print…so I’m kinda jazzed.
A direct link is (here).
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How To Be a “Voluntourist”
By Sarah Robbins
- MARIE CLAIRE MAGAZINE June 2009
Angelina Jolie helps build a hut for Congolese refugees in Tanzania.
Photo Credit: N. Behring-Chrisholm/Getty Images
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You tumble out of your bunk at 5 a.m., take an ice-cold shower, and schlep banana-tree trunks across the rainforest to build a bridge. That’s called summer vacation for volunteers with the Malaysia-based Great Orangutan Project, which works to protect the dwindling population of red-haired apes. And it’s one of hundreds of do-goodery options for people itching to heed President Obama’s call to service, asking not what your time off can do for you (tan lines, hookups, tiki bars), but what you can do with your time off.
A slew of “voluntourism” books are hitting shelves this summer, starting with Volunteer Vacations Across America and National Geographic’s The 100 Best Volunteer Vacations to Enrich Your Life. The guides describe how to do everything from building a mobile karaoke studio in Cambodia to restoring a monastery in Tibet.
A little too selfless for you? Consider this: “In today’s economy, it can be crass to talk about how you spent two weeks at a resort,” says Andrew Mersmann, author of Frommer’s 500 Places Where You Can Make a Difference, in stores this fall. “But if you spent your days saving endangered black rhinos, that’s cocktail conversation.”
It was a bit of a Sally Field moment for me last night (You like me, you really like me), when I was presented the Lowell Thomas Gold Award from the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation for the “Best Guidebook 2010” for my book, Frommer’s 500 Places Where You Can Make a Difference. The award was unexpected (not a surprise last night, but it was a huge surprise when they informed me a few weeks ago) and a nice up moment on what has been a roller coaster of a year.
Well–here it is. This is the book that kept me on self-imposed house arrest all winter and spring, tilting at the windmills of time trying to get it done.
Change by Doing 