By Kaitlin McGuire
Vantage Travel has offered customers deluxe world travel since 1983, when CEO Henry Lewis launched the company that sought to offer exciting, globetrotting trips at reasonable prices to mature explorers. The focus of Vantage Travel’s trips and tours was immersion, creating a cultural connection between the locals and the visitors so the line between lifelong resident and tourist began to blur. According to their mission statement, Vantage strives “to provide quality travel experiences and services that exceed the expectations of our customers.” By all accounts, the company has succeeded. Vantage’s professional staff and worldwide partners have escorted over 450,000 mature travelers to locations around the globe. Everyone, no matter their age, deserves to embark on a life-changing journey packed with adventure, friendship, and the stuff of fond memories.
This year, Vantage Travel decided to offer the same tradition of exciting escapades in quality surroundings to 65 inner city children in Boston. The company raised enough funds to allow 50 boys and 15 girls to attend the West End House Camp in Parsonsfield, Maine, a non-profit camp of 135 acres, including a wide stretch of land along the picturesque Long Pond. The camp offers activities ranging from sports like baseball and basketball to swimming and archery, as well as arts and crafts, mountain biking, and a variety of water sports.
The West End House Camp was founded in 1908 by James Jackson Storrow and was built on a tradition of excellence and inclusion of all children. The camp grew out of the West End House, also started by Storrow and founded two years earlier, in 1906, in order to ease racial and ethnic tensions between the youth in the West End. The West End House now resides in Allston-Brighton, though the dedication to proving that less fortunate children are no less worthy of acceptance and opportunity than those with more advantages still stands. The camp provides a summer adventure that stays with the boys and girls who experience it, and a strict adherence to the motto “Make friends for life.” The proof is in the camp population—the camp boasts a high return rate, with most children coming in as third or fourth generation campers, and 95 percent of staffers are former campers themselves. First-class facilities and action-packed programs ranging from two to eight week sessions are sure to draw old hands and newcomers alike, while the relatively short drive time from Boston (just two hours) keeps parents happy.
The pricing at the West End House Camp is quite reasonable, especially considering the quality of the modern cabins, indoor gym, dining hall, a small library, and other amenities. But, of course, not all children have the accessibility to such programs. This is where Vantage Travel steps in. Last year, Vantage was able to help raise enough in donations to offer $200,000 in camperships to bring deserving children to the West End House Camp. Vantage also sponsors the Edward Lewis Foundation, an organization founded a decade ago to support safe havens and care systems for children in need, and one that has raised approximately $7 million since its inception to benefit the West End House Boys and Girls Club.
Children at the West End House represent a variety of ages, races, family histories, traditions, and upbringings, and all are welcome and encouraged to find support and refuge within the Boys and Girls Club. Through the added support of generous donations, the Edward Lewis Foundation, and Vantage Travel, some of these children are also afforded the chance to live the experience of a lifetime over the course of many weeks each summer at the West End House Camp.
To learn more about the exciting programs West End House Camp has to offer, contact them at (617) 783-2267 or visit them at www.westendhousecamp.com.
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