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Editor's Note: Merry Christmas from the TS crew! For our last dispatch of 2014, we wanted to wrap on a meaningful note and show an example of how you can give through travel. Catch you back in early 2015.
Santa normally flies first class in a space-age sleigh programmed by smarter-than-Einstein elves and NASA-trained reindeer. During his once-yearly festive flight, I'm told he rides in "cool class" with a lie-flat seat kitted out with electronic massage modules, buttons for easy navigation to every country from Azerbaijan to Zimbabwe, and an on-demand hot cocoa machine specially made by Swiss elves. In other words, he's a true—perhaps even the original—Trip Styler.
This year, in preparation for Christmas, St. Nick ditched his fancy ride to fly around the world in COACH for a project VERY close to his heart: To raise money for the kids at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Knowing a little something-something about round-the-world journeys, in partnership with Expedia—because, duh, Santa books vacations when his busy season wraps—he criss-crossed the map to top up his Expedia+ Reward points so he could donate them directly to St. Jude.
As you can see from the three-minute recap above, Mr. Red Suit himself flew 19,602 miles across surf and turf {even spending a night in Tokyo at a capsule hotel} ending up at St. Jude in Memphis, Tennessee to deliver gifts to kids in the hospital. At the end of his transcontinental trek, he donated all the points he earned traveling to St. Jude, so they can continue to help kids get better and fund world-leading research.
I'm not telling you about this initiative because I have a vested interest in Expedia through my work with their Expedia Viewfinder Travel Blog team. I'm telling you about this because helping others is part of my core existence, whether it is donating to causes like this, working to build and fund medical clinics in hard-to-access areas, or volunteering with teens.
When I married Mr. Trip Styler 10 years ago, in lieu of party favors, we donated to the Canadian equivalent of St. Jude, and have continued to do so every year, which is why I'm so smitten that through this Expedia campaign anyone can give St. Jude their Expedia+ points {or cash}, which ensures three things:
1. No family in need will ever receive a bill at St. Jude {because St. Jude is funded by people like you}.
2. Children with life-threatening diseases get the best possible care, such as proton therapy {the most advanced form of radiation technology}.
3. Continued breakthroughs; as a research hospital, St. Jude freely shares their life-giving discoveries such as the Pediatric Cancer Genome Project {working to find childhood cancer causes and potential new treatments}, so doctors and scientists worldwide can use this knowledge to save thousands more children.
If you have one minute and a few Expedia+ points, consider giving a gift far more significant than something that can be placed under the tree. This holiday season join me in donating your Expedia+ points, and leaving a lifesaving legacy. 'Tis the season.
More
Donate: Expedia.com/Santa
Social: #SantaFliesCoach #ExpediaStJude
Learn: See what my colleagues have also written about this initiative --> Travel with Kate, Midlife Road Trip, Girl Gone Travel, Hip Travel Mama
[photos via the Santa Flies Coach Expedia campaign for St. Jude]