Hershey Foundation offers connection with Cuba

Hershey Foundation offers connection with Cuba
Sunday, July 12, 2009

Cuba is a mysterious destination. It's so close, yet it's diffi cult to
reach given the federal restrictions on travel there. But, one way to
see the island is by visiting under a special license issued by the U.S.
Treasury Department. One such license allows travel for humanitarian
projects. And that's how the M.S. Hershey Foundation is able to offer
trips to Cuba.

The foundation partners with the Bringing Hope Foundation, which is
licensed to travel to Cuba "to deliver humanitarian supplies to an
independent charity to benefit the Cuban people."

But why does the M.S. Hershey Foundation have an interest in Cuba? In
the early 1900s, Milton S. Hershey built a sugar refinery and a town in
Cuba he named Central Hershey to provide his chocolate factory with
sugar, which was in limited supply due to World War I. That connection
is what has motivated the foundation's 10 trips to Cuba in as many years.
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"There's a lot of interest [in our trips to Cuba]," says Jan Hester,
travel planner for the M.S. Hershey Foundation in Derry Twp. "It's a
unique story. And people are fascinated by it."

Next year's trip is scheduled for April 16-24 and will include visits to
Havana and Hershey along with humanitarian missions, says Hester, who
will escort the group of 20 to 24 people.

The main charity supported by the Bringing Hope Foundation is a Latin
American Catholic organization whose nuns include medical personnel who
have taken it upon themselves to collect prescription and
over-the-counter medications. According to Hester, Cuba has good doctors
and a good health care system, but it lacks sufficient medicine.

The trip begins in Miami where group participants will stay overnight
before flying to Havana. On their first day in Cuba, tour members will
participate in a seminar on U.S. and Cuban relations. The next day the
group will deliver supplies to the Catholic charity, take a walking tour
of Old Havana and attend a cultural performance.

Days 4 and 5 will include visits to a cigar factory, the Hemingway
estate, an orchid farm and the town of Hershey, where lunch will be
served at the Hershey Gardens. As an optional add-on, participants can
enjoy an evening at the Tropicana Night Club in Havana.

Days 6 and 7 will be spent in Cienfuegos and Trinidad de Cuba, where
more humanitarian visits are scheduled, along with an antique train ride
through the Valley of the Sugar Mills to restored plantations. The group
will return to Havana on Day 8 and fly back to Miami on Day 9.

The cost of the trip is $3,575 per person, based on two people sharing a
room, and includes all accommodations, airfare to and from Havana, 18
meals, all transportation on the island, sightseeing, a Cuban Travel
Card and Cuban medical insurance.

Not included is airfare to Miami, which participants can book on their
own or obtain through Hester.

The M.S. Hershey Foundation has scheduled an information night about the
trip at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at The Hershey Story museum at 111 W.
Chocolate Ave. in Hershey. To register, call 520-5585.

Hershey Foundation offers connection with Cuba - PennLive.com (12 July 2009)
http://www.pennlive.com/columns/patriotnews/reiff/index.ssf?/base/columnists/1247258413181240.xml&coll=1