The best travel websites: part one
Each month we present a selection of the best travel websites. This month:
uncovering extra legroom, sleeping in airports and information for railway
enthusiasts.
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Published April 01, 2009 02:01 pm – With only two days left until the 2009 Baldwin County Relay for Life, hundreds of people composing more than 70 teams are searching out for last-minute dollar donations and preparing for more than 24 hours of fun, friendship and fundraising.
Baldwin County prepares for Relay for Life
Goal nearly half reached, totals still coming in
Alexander Cain
The Union-Recorder
With only two days left until the 2009 Baldwin County Relay for Life, hundreds of people composing more than 70 teams are searching out for last-minute dollar donations and preparing for more than 24 hours of fun, friendship and fundraising.
“I think things are going great. We’re ready. We think things are good, and we need all the support that we can get,” Jan Nutt, CoChair for Relay 2009, said.
Relay for Life is an American Cancer Society-sponsored event that takes place in cities and counties across the country each year to raise money in the fight against cancer.
Baldwin County has set a goal of $238,000 this year — nearly $13,000 more raised by 68 teams for the 15th annual Baldwin County Relay for Life in 2008.
That event, held at Walter B. Williams Park, brought more than 1,300 individual participants together for the 21.5 hour event.
The 2009 Baldwin County Relay for Life is scheduled to be held April 3 at South Creek, 2949 Highway 441 S.
“One thing we want to make sure people know is that they need to bring lawn chairs or blankets this year because we will not have bleachers available at the new site,” Nutt said.
South Creek is located off the Highway 441 Bypass as if a person was driving to Dublin.
Taking a left at the Highway 49/U.S. 441 Bypass, travel past Allen Memorial Drive, over train tracks and continue for a few more miles, watching for entrance signs on the right side of the road.
South Creek will have shower facilities and shade areas available as well as ample parking and trailer hook-ups, according to David Settle, property owner.
Settle has been kept busy with tasks such as mowing the grass and removing limbs from the South Creek site, so he hasn’t had many opportunities to see the enthusiasm provided by the local community behind the event.
Enthusiasm came in the form of coins and dollars Monday evening as the 2009 Baldwin Relay held its “Bank Night,” a chance for participating teams to receive t-shirts and deposit money at Century Bank related to Relay donations and fundraisers.
Brittney Pickard is with the Georgia College & State University Collegiate 4-H team, and was one of a handful of stragglers turning in money at the last minute Monday night.
“We’re at $900 right now. We have a small team so that’s pretty good,” Pickard said.
Most Baldwin Relay representatives were present Monday, including Nutt, who helped to oversee the logistics behind so much money being collected in such a short period of time.
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25 replies. Last post 1 minute ago by truecritic . I’m not sure what you mean about government competing against business, but if your skills can get you 100k from one employer or 250k from another, which job would you take?
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A Chinese film crew visited Portland last summer aiming to shoot enough images for a 20-minute clip for a travel series.
But higher-ups at JiangSu Broadcasting Corp. enjoyed the Portland snippets so much they ultimately split nearly two hours of film into five episodes.
Watch a portion of the video here:
About 40 million Chinese have watched the show since its first airing in October, said Jenny Dong, president of the Pacific Education & Cultural Exchange Center in Beaverton, which helped bring the crew to the Rose City in hopes of encouraging retail tourism.
The idea was to introduce the more well-off Chinese who travel to Portland to its shopping opportunities — especially its lack of a sales tax — in hopes they’d ask travel agents to add a Portland day trip to West Coast itineraries that typically feature only Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas.
The film crew’s trip was well-timed, following a move by the Chinese government to allow a handful of wealthier provinces to line up touring trips to the U.S. Destination shopping travel has been on the rise in recent years as the U.S. dollar weakened. And China, tourism experts said, could provide eager retail tourists.
In 2007, some 300,000 Chinese traveled to the U.S. for business, academic or government-relations work, according to China’s consul in San Francisco. And when they come, the more upper class travelers typically spend $2,000 to $3,000 per person per trip, Jin Lan, president of the Oregon-Fujian Sister State Association, said last summer.
One of the first tour groups to arrive after travel rules were changed brought 240 Chinese. The group visited New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and San Francisco, where in less than an hour, the group spent $8,000 at an Apple store, Dong said.
Though no tour groups have come since the show aired — with English subtitles in China, the U.S, and elsewhere — Dong said, Chinese both at home an in the States have been abuzz.
“A lot of people called their relatives and friends in Portland after they watched the show,” she said. “They wanted to confirm with their relatives and friends that shopping here is free of tax, that owning a boat in Portland is as easy as owning a car and that clamming on the beach is as easy as they saw on the show.”
Stephen Ying, president of the Chinese American Citizen Alliance in Portland, helped Dong host the film crew.
“People who watched it say Portland is a beautiful place,” Ying said. “A lot of people are requesting how to get here.”
After the show, he said, his brother received calls from friends and family asking that he pick up goods from Portland that end up being 50 percent cheaper after exchange rates and lack of sales taxes. His brother recently returned to China with several thousand dollars’ worth of Louis Vuitton items.
“Chinese people want to come enjoy the Portland tour,” Ying said, “and they like buying stuff, too.”
Dong said she’s arranging an educational tour group from the JiangSu province, where Portland’s sister city Suzhou is located, to visit in June to check out student-exchange possibilities.
She also said a Chinese summer camp is planning a Portland trip in August and, after seeing the show, officials from Nanjing University’s media program inquired about hooking up with universities in Oregon for student exchange and business internship programs.
“They were able to capture Portland from Chinese viewers’ point of view,” Dong said. “It’s done a lot to satisfy Chinese viewer’s interest and curiosity about Portland.”
– Laura Gunderson; lauragunderson@news.oregonian.com
