Tauck Workers Assist In Gulf Coast Clean-Up

 

NORWALK, CT (March 23, 2006)  Employees of Norwalk-based Tauck World Discovery joined company Chairman Arthur Tauck in Biloxi, Mississippi last week to help Gulf Coast tourism sites recover from the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina.  The five-person Tauck delegation was part of a group of 350 travel industry professionals participating in a volunteer effort organized by Tourism Cares For Tomorrow, a non-profit industry charity that Arthur Tauck also chairs.

 

The trip was particularly moving for Arthur Tauck, who has strong personal and professional ties to the area.  In the early 1950s, Arthur Tauck’s oldest son Chuck was born in Biloxi while Arthur was stationed at nearby Keesler Air Force Base.  And although Tauck World Discovery no longer offers tours along the Gulf Coast, for many years the company brought guests to the Biloxi area. 

 

“The devastation is unimaginable,” said Tauck.  “Nearly seven months after the hurricane, the tree branches are still full of clothes and debris.  All along the coast, there’s nothing at all left of many, many homes and businesses except concrete foundations.”  The local tourism industry, concentrated along the shore and vital to the area’s economy, was especially hard hit, said Tauck.  “The idea for the Tourism Cares For Tomorrow event was to bring in as many travel industry people as we could, and do our part to help some of the local tourism sites move forward along the path to recovery.”

The Tourism Cares For Tomorrow group performed salvage, clean-up and rebuilding work at several tourism attractions in and around Biloxi, including the Frank Gehry-designed Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art, the Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum, the Lynn Meadows Discovery Center, and Beauvoir, the final residence of Confederate president Jefferson Davis. 

 

A National Historic Landmark, the 52-acre Beauvoir complex sits directly across Route 90 from the Gulf of Mexico.  Prior to Hurricane Katrina, the site contained the Jefferson Davis Home, Presidential Library, Hayes Cottage, Library Pavilion, and Confederate Soldier's Museum & Gift Shop.  The only structures left standing today are the home and library, and both were heavily damaged by the hurricane.  Arthur Tauck and other volunteers removed debris from the site and sifted through rubble, while also searching for artifacts swept from the home and museum by Katrina’s 30-foot storm surge.  Tom Armstrong, Tauck’s Corporate Communications Manager, uncovered numerous pieces of a large decorative porcelain bowl and other fragments from a delicate China figurine, all buried in six inches of sand amid roofing shingles and plaster wallboard from the buildings. 

 

 

Based in Canton, Massachusetts, Tourism Cares for Tomorrow is a non-profit 501(c)(3) public charity that preserves, conserves and promotes the responsible use of the world's natural, cultural and historic treasures, and supports education and research to help secure the positive future of travel and tourism worldwide.  The TCFT Gulf Coast event was held from March 16^th to the 19^th, and featured two full days of labor on Friday, March 17^th, and Saturday, March 18^th.  The TCFT volunteer effort is an annual event, and last year the organization assisted with clean up and rehabilitation work at George Washington’s historic Mount Vernon estate.

 

Now in its 81^st year, Tauck World Discovery is the leading provider of upscale, escorted travel.  The company operates 115 distinctive land journeys, ocean cruises, river cruises and safaris that provide authentic, engaging discovery in 60 countries.  Headquartered in Norwalk, CT, Tauck has been named the “World’s Best Tour Operator and Safari Outfitter” three times by the readers of Travel + Leisure magazine.  For more information, visit www.tauck.com.

  

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