Senior Class of Webber Township High School Heads to Branson, Missouri, Thanks to Travel Fairy Godmother Stephanie Abrams; Country Surroundings in Galway City at Westwood House Hotel, Galway, Ireland; Actor, Humorist, and Leprechaun Malachy McCourt Heads to Roundstone, Ireland in Summer 2011.
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Topics Include:
Roger Pauley, Superintendent and Principal, Webber Township High School, Bluford, Illinois, USA.
www.webberhs.com
Travel Expert Stephanie Abrams and the "Travelers411" Radio Show start the show with Roger Pauley, Principal and Superintendent of Webber Township High School in Bluford, Illinois. Stephanie is playing Travel Fairy Godmother to the senior class of Webber Township and sending the students on a trip to Branson, Missouri. She decided to step in after hearing about the students' generosity to a classmate's family.
In fall 2010, a Webber student suffered a traumatic brain injury following a bike accident. Given that his family was dealing with both emotional distress and economic pressure, the senior class decided to donate funds raised for their senior trip to the family. This meant that the students were giving up their senior class trip, for which they had been fundraising since their freshman year. When Stephanie heard the story, she contacted Roger to come up with a nearby destination where parents could feel comfortable sending their soon-to-be high school graduates.
"The students have been working since freshman year in order to pay for their junior prom and class trip," Roger explains. "They donated everything to that family, including the money they raised the rest of this year. When Stephanie announced that they were going to Branson, I was kind of in awe because the class had no response. They were just shocked and didn't know how to respond! Afterwards in the classrooms, they were all talking about it and how they wanted to thank Stephanie online." Listeners can read what the students and parents had to say on the forums at sabrams.com.
The students are leaving for Missouri shortly, and Roger has just spoken with the Hilton Branson Convention Center, where they'll be staying, to finalize room assignments. "Two or three of the seniors were in my office today looking at the website," he says. "They weren't in trouble, they just wanted to see where they were going to be and what they had to look forward to." Roger and Stephanie also worked to put together an itinerary for the students.
On their first night in Branson, the senior class will get to see the Legends in Concert show at Dick Clark's American Bandstand Theater. The next morning, they'll have breakfast at the Hilton before heading to the Titanic museum. "They've learned about the Titanic in class and watch the movie, so visiting the museum will just reinforce what they've learned," says Roger. After a pizza party at the hotel, the group will spend the evening at Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede, a live dinner show. The following day, they'll travel back to Illinois after breakfast.
The senior trip represents the culmination of 4 years of fundraising efforts. "Freshman year, they hold general fundraisers where they sell things from different companies," Roger explains. "Sophomore year, they work the concession stand at all the ball games. Junior year, their biggest fundraiser is selling magazine subscriptions to the community, plus smaller ones like selling candy for Valentine's Day. This year, the seniors have brought in different things to sell at lunch, from pizza to burgers, and raised quite a bit of money this way. They gave the family around $2500, if not more."
Not only are the students excited about their trip, but the community has stepped forward to send them off in style. "Some parents with business contacts were concerned that the kids had given all the money away," Roger says. "So they worked with a sporting goods store and a local insurance company to hold a raffle. They raised $2800 to divide among the kids, so they'll have spending money for those 3 days they're in Branson."
As superintendent and principal, Roger says that it's refreshing to see something positive from high school students. "I see a lot more negatives than positives in this job," he explains. Stephanie agrees, pointing out that a story like this would never make the national news. "We would know if they had burned down the barn or something," she says. "Giving away money like this would never be front page news, but it ought to be. It's a privilege for me to be able to take this kind of good news and spread it around. It's a wonderful credit to the parents, teachers, clergymen, Scout leaders, and all those people who have touched the lives of these kids."
Related Photo Galleries:
http://www.travelers411.com/forums/album.php?albumid=495
Travelers411 Community Forums - This interview's thread:
http://www.travelers411.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3386
For more information visit www.webberhs.com
Travel Tips:
At a gala dinner for the Irish Hotels Federation conference at the Slieve Russell Hotel in County Cavan, Ireland, Stephanie played a great round of Name That Tune. "They had a band there, and in between courses, the band played snippets of 20 songs, all movie themes," she recalls. "Everyone had paper and pencil, and every table was competing against the others. You might want to try this if you host a lot of dinner parties because it was so much fun."
Boston-area listeners may want to tune in to WBZ at 11 p.m. on Wednesday, May 11, 2011 for a segment featuring Stephanie. "I was invited to come talk about buying hotel rooms online," she explains. "There was another story I needed to talk about, too, so they got 2 stories out of my visit. They did 45 minutes of taping, which will probably come down to about 90 seconds." Listeners can also visit WBZTV.com to catch the segments.
Guests Include:
Roger Pauley, Superintendent and Principal, Webber Township High School, Bluford, Illinois, USA.
www.webberhs.com
Topics Include:
Dave Kelly, General Manager, Westwood House Hotel, Galway, Ireland.
www.westwoodhousehotel.com
Travel Expert Stephanie Abrams and the "Travelers411" Radio Show finally meet Dave Kelly, General Manager of Westwood House Hotel in Galway, Ireland. Every time Stephanie has visited Galway, she's driven past the Westwood House Hotel on the N59 road. "It sits on its own little private space with trees and looks like an estate," she explains. "Even though it's in town, you really get a country setting feel."
Although Dave is busy with a wedding, he takes a few minutes to talk with Stephanie about the hotel. "It's very similar inside [to the charming, estate-like outside]," he says. "Our motto is country surroundings in the city. Even though it's a relatively new building – we opened in 1999 – it's very much in the style of a country house. We have lovely spaces, conservatories, and open fireplaces in the dining room and even the banqueting hall. So it's really a place where you can relax with a good book and a glass of wine or a pint of Guinness."
Westwood House Hotel has 58 bedrooms in total and banqueting space for about 300 people. "We have a large bar area split between two floors and a beautiful restaurant, Meridian, which has about 60 seats and does a mix of European and Irish cuisine," Dave explains. "It's very popular with guests and locals, thankfully." Stephanie remarks that the property is just the right size for someone to take over. "That's one of the ways we usually set weddings," Dave rejoins. "Here, if you have 45 to 50 rooms, you pretty much have the whole hotel to yourself. Everyone here is focused on the wedding; the day it's on, nothing else is really happening."
Dave estimates that Westwood House Hotel has probably done about a dozen American weddings in the last 5 years, mainly for couples of which one member was of Irish descent. "Maybe the bride or groom is of Irish origin, so they've decided to make the wedding back in Ireland and bring a large American contingent along," he says. "We can usually get the planning done in 2 or 3 hours by email or phone. A visit is not even necessary. It's better if it happens, but we have experience in doing it all by phone from across the Atlantic Ocean."
For weddings or leisure travel, the hotel's location is prime. "We really give you the best of 3 worlds," says Dave. "There's the Galway city center within a 15 minute walk, and Salthill, the Galway Bay Hotel, and Aran Islands in a 5 to 10 minute drive. If you go out and turn left on the N59, that's basically the gateway to Connemara – Cong, Clifden, and all those areas. So when you stay with us, you have access to the city, the sea, and Connemara. It's the ideal location."
Related Photo Galleries:
http://www.travelers411.com/forums/album.php?albumid=577
Travelers411 Community Forums - This interview's thread:
http://www.travelers411.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3387
For more information visit www.westwoodhousehotel.com
Malachy McCourt, Actor, Author, Humorist, Leprechaun, New York, New York, USA.
www.malachymccourt.com
Travel Expert Stephanie Abrams and the "Travelers411" Radio Show bring in Malachy McCourt, actor, author, humorist, and leprechaun based in New York, New York. Malachy joins Stephanie and Dave Kelly, General Manager of the Westwood House Hotel in Galway, Ireland. Malachy's books include "A Monk Swimming" and "Harold Be Thy Name." Neither has anything to do with monks, swimming, or men named Harold. Rather, the titles come from Malachy's mishearing of the lines 'amongst women' and 'hallowed be thy name' in the Hail Mary and Lord's Prayer, respectively.
Though Malachy is based in New York, he grew up in Limerick and is planning to be in Connemara for the month of July 2011. He'll be renting a house from Malachy Kearn in Roundstone, which in Dave's opinion is one of the prettiest places in the country. It's also a popular spot, apparently. "Bill Whalen, who wrote the music for Riverdance, will be out there, too," says Malachy. "He's another Limerick man, or Limerick git, as we say." Stephanie invites him to have dinner – on Dave – at the Westwood House Hotel during his visit to Ireland.
Malachy is bringing his son and granddaughter to Roundstone, and plans on getting a car from Dooley Car Rental to ferry them around. "I spent a good bit of time in Roundstone while doing the movie 'The Field' with Richard Harris and Jim Sheridan and John Hurt and all that," he says. "So we spent 8 weeks there and it was really lovely. It's just beautiful and I'm looking forward to being back." His friend Kate O'Toole, daughter of Peter, is also a local and currently living in Clifden.
Travelers411 Community Forums - This interview's thread:
http://www.travelers411.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3388
For more information visit www.malachymccourt.com
Travel Tips:
The English spoken in North America and the United Kingdom is not always the same. Luckily, Stephanie has prepared a primer on the differences between the queen's English and that spoken in the former colonies.
Londoners would say that they walk through the subway to get on the underground. In North America, however, we would say that we walk through an underground area to get on the subway (i.e., the actual trains).
At restaurants, Americans will ask for sausages and mashed potatoes. In the UK, sausages are called 'bangers' and mashed potatoes called 'mash.' In Ireland, however, mashed potatoes are called 'champ.'
Don't be offended if an Englishman or Irishwoman describes your home as 'homely.' In the UK and Ireland, 'homely' means 'cozy and sweet,' not 'ugly.' Americans would say 'homey' instead to mean the same thing.
The royal wedding was full of female guests wearing big, beautiful Easter bonnets. In England, though, 'bonnet' refers to the hood of a car. "If you're renting a car and need to take it to the service station, you must lift the bonnet to look at the engine," Stephanie explains. "And the trunk is called the boot – it's not something you put on your foot." Another car tip is that in the U.S., we put silencers on guns and mufflers on cars. In the UK and Ireland, it's reversed: a silencer goes on the car and a muffler goes on a gun.
In London, Stephanie likes to go to Leicester Square (pronounced 'lester'). "If you want to go to the movies, that's the place to go," she says. "Plus there's a little park, so you have a bit of greenery, and lots of restaurants. If you walk a block in off the main area, you're in Chinatown, which has lots of cute shops and is something a little bit different."
Fun Facts:
Black-haired, blue-eyed Irish folks (the so-called Black Irish) are descended from the Spanish sailors who came north with the Armada. Since the Spaniards and Irish were both Catholic, it was easy for the sailors to stay in Ireland and marry the locals
Guests Include:
Dave Kelly, General Manager, Westwood House Hotel, Galway, Ireland.
www.westwoodhousehotel.com
Malachy McCourt, Actor, Author, Humorist, Leprechaun, New York, New York, USA.
www.malachymccourt.com
