Michelle Wicks-Cypher, Travel There and Back, Empowering Adventurers

Michelle Wicks-Cypher, Founding Travel Agent with Travel There and Back of Monroe WA (and another of my BNINW Sky Valley Business Boosters Monroe chapter mates) wants to teach tourists to be travelers, and wants to help travelers extend their adventures in directions they may never have imagined.

Michelle is especially passionate about finding opportunities for her clients to experience opportunities which are deeply embedded in the local culture and economy of their destination. She is an enthusiastic partner with G Adventures, which hires local guides who may have been street kids or laid-off and homeless a few years before and which finds accommodations in real homes, real farms, real villages, not resorts behind fences. G Adventures employees’ pride in their work and their homes is vibrant. Empowering people by satisfying your desire to learn is deeply rewarding.

Nowhere has Michelle seen this more profoundly in action than when she coordinates travel for Senior (grades 9 – 10) and Ambassador (grades 11 – 12) Girl Scouts. Michelle’s region (Western Washington) allows its senior Scouts to travel, with adult supervision, to almost anywhere in the world. 2014 sent 19 young women to Western Europe. Iceland and the UK welcomed Scouts in 2016. Tanzania will be the 2018 destination. The youth who enter the travel program are responsible for huge portions of the preparations, deciding their destinations, planning budgets, raising funds, choosing itineraries: all coordinated democratically using teams, votes and debates to finish the tasks. Each trip exposes them to environments very different than their own. A Taste of Tanzania dinner (an AUTHENTIC meal!) and silent auction fundraiser for the trip will be held on January 20, 2018, 6:00PM – 9:00PM at Northwood Middle School, 17007 SE 184^th Street, Renton, WA  98058. Tickets can be purchased online. Please ask questions of Michelle by phone 206-715-1604 or email gsww.africa2018@gmail.com. The attached flyer also offers an option for mailing in ticket orders.

Robyn, Michelle’s daughter, was Michelle’s introduction to Scouts. Michelle spent seven memorable years as a troop leader, and saw Robyn blossom. Robyn’s success fuels Michelle fervent belief in

G Go-Getter
I– Innovator
R – Risk-Taker
L – Leader Power

and developing that in every girl to their fullest. Some of Michelle’s Scout “clients” also anchor Michelle’s excitement. Some of her girls begin their first expedition seriously disinterested, IPod on and cellphone at the ready for an “I’m sooooo bored” text to friends back home. Instead, some have returned for a second journey.

Michelle is teaching people about their world one adventure at a time.