I just got back from the Tourism Cares 2012 event in Pensacola and what an amazing time it was! Surrounded by 25 fellow volunteers from Collette and hundreds of volunteers throughout the travel industry, we preserved to the best of our ability the Pensacola Lighthouse as well as cleaned up the shores of Pensacola, and you really could see an amazing transformation take place from the time we started in the morning to when we finished in the afternoon. Bravo and hats off to all the hard work and time that was given for this event! It’s a great cause and I am so proud that year after year, Collette volunteers roll up our sleeves with so many other travel professionals and partake.

- Dan Kern (Collette Foundation volunteer)

We just received a nice letter from our friends at Tourism Cares detailing the day in a nutshell:

Our volunteers did it again! Last week in Pensacola, more than 200 travel industry volunteers, representing 80 different companies, came together and made an enormous impact at two sites – the Pensacola Lighthouse and Bayou Texar. In one day, volunteers donated an estimated $25,000 in labor costs. Some key accomplishments of the day:

At the Pensacola Lighthouse:

  • Painted 4000ft of fence
  • Repaired and painted 5000 pickets
  • Painted 23 rooms covering almost 6000sq ft
  • Cleared brush from an area covering 2400sq ft
  • Laid more than 1800 sq ft of sod
  • Planted 660 jasmine and 48 azalea bushes
  • Built 2400 sq ft of flower beds
  • Mulched more than 5000 sqt ft of flower beds

In addition, Tourism Cares awarded a $5,000 grant to the Pensacola Lighthouse to continue their restoration work there.

At Bayview Park, Bayou Texar:

  • Planted 2,500 native salt marsh grasses along 600 feet of shoreline to stabilize the park shoreline and protect it from harmful pollutants and excess runoff
  • Hand pulled 500-1000 lbs of root material from invasive reed grass
  • Prepared an additional 500 square feet of intertidal area to be planted by removing Phragmites along the shoreline
  • Contributed nearly 200 hours of volunteer time in total