UHS Travel Club

Summer 2019: France, Germany, and the Alps

Welcome Parents and Families,

First off, we would like to thank you for supporting this activity by registering your students for this trip. We believe that international travel is such an important part of a young person’s development, and we are beyond excited to be traveling with such a wonderful group of students next summer. This trip is already filling up fast – we anticipate another sold out tour within the next few weeks! This also means that we will likely be traveling as a private group and will not be combined with students from another school while on tour. While we are on tour we will also be accompanied by an experienced full-time Tour Director provided by EF Tours. A complete participant list will be provided at the first student and parent meetings next fall.

Meetings & Timeline:

In order to make this activity as equitable and accessible as possible we begin recruitment two years prior to our anticipated departure date. This allows families more time to fundraise and plan for a big event such as this. However, this also means that we are preparing for multiple trips at any given point, and therefore we have created a system that allows us to manage the program effectively.

Timeline for 2019 Participants:

  • Year One (2017 – 2018 SY): Participants and their families should focus on fundraising for their individual tour. By recruiting donors early and encouraging repeat donations, students will be able to maximize their fundraising efforts. Students are not required or expected to attend UHS Travel Club meetings during the 2017-2018 school year as these meetings will focus on preparing students registered for the 2018 trip. Email communication will be infrequent during this first year. However, all students and parents are invited to attend an information meeting on Tax Credits & Fundraising this fall. Please also note that funds raised during the 2017-2018 SY cannot be sent to individual EF accounts until the 2018-2019 SY. No trips will be cancelled and all late fees will be removed regardless of what messages you may receive from EF Tours. For more information, PLEASE attend our upcoming meeting:
  • Tax Credit & Information Meeting (All Trips!) –Thursday, Sept. 7th @ 6pm in RUHS Auditorium
  • Year Two (2018 – 2019 SY): Students enrolled in 2019 and their families are expected to attend all UHS Travel Club meetings during this school year as the focus will now be preparation for the 2019 trip. Meeting dates have yet to be established, but in general this is what student and families can expect.
  • Student Meetings: Student meetings will likely take place every other Tuesday during 2nd lunch throughout the school year.
  • Parent Meetings: There will be four parent meetings throughout the year that families are strongly encouraged to attend. They will take place in September, October, April, and May in the evening.

Tax Credits & Fundraising:

Many families that choose to participate on this activity are dependent on as much fundraising and tax credits as possible to ensure that their student is able to travel to Europe. Our goal is to prevent any cancellations due to financial reasons, but this responsibility also rests on the students themselves. Tax credits and donations are one of the best ways to raise substantial funding for this trip, but we will also try to arrange some fundraising events throughout the year. At our student club meetings we will discuss what these fundraising events might be and how the funds raised from these events will be used. My intent is for the fundraising to be very student centered and student driven. We will look at a combination of individual fundraising and group events, but as I mentioned in the recruitment process, we cannot guarantee any specific amount of fundraising from club events, especially as the amount of participants continues to grow each year. Student fundraising activities for 2019 participants will not take place until the 2018-2019 SY.

Information on how to raise and apply tax credits and donations is available on the fundraising page of our website ( We will also discuss the process at the first student and first parent meetings. Ms. Tully will begin the first tax credit/donation withdrawal in September 2018 for all contributions made up to that point. However this does not mean that all tax credits/donations are due, future withdrawals will occur about every two months until March, when the final withdrawal and application of funds will be made. The deadline for ALL tax credits and donations for our tour is February 28th, 2019.

Homework:

  • Please email to confirm that you have received and read this letter, and we will then add your email to our group distribution list.
  • If necessary, please complete and return the Contact Information Sheet and Behavior Contract as soon as possible to Ms. Tully (email or in person). We will follow up with families who still have missing paperwork within the next few weeks.

Finally, we would like to assure students and their families that they are in good hands. EF Tours is one of the best educational travel companies available, and we have had nothing but success working with them. Please understand that we hold everyone’s best interests at heart and will work as hard as we can to make this a wonderful experience for everyone. We understand that you are entrusting us with the safety of your children and the management of large sums of money, and we accept this responsibility with nothing but good faith. Therefore, if you have any questions or concerns about anything at any point, please contact Meg Tully first. Travel and education are our passions, and we are committed to making sure students have the best experience possible. We look forward to working with you this year so that our students will have this wonderful opportunity to travel the world.

Sincerely,

Meg Tully & Whitney Sheets

Ms. Tully’s Contact Information:

Work Email:

Cell Phone: 520-404-3825

Ms. Sheet’s Contact Information:

Work Email: