Four Vacations Bring Joy to Community This Year
By Julia McCune, Director of Community Engagement
Taking vacation lowers anxiety, improves your mood and sleep routine, reduces stress, and helps you get back to your true self. Vacations are a vital part of living our best lives! For many people Jubilee supports, the Jubilee vacation is the highlight of the year.
For the first time this year, Jubilee expanded to four trips. Based on feedback from people Jubilee supports, we added two new locations in addition to our traditional Ocean City vacation. Planning four trips to Ocean City, Williamsburg, and Atlantic City that spanned August and September took a lot more work, but it was all worth it when we heard consistently from people how meaningful the trips were to them. This change also allowed for smaller groups, which created deeper relationship building—an important part of these vacations.
When we get away from our daily routines and spend time with people we don’t typically get to spend time with, we’re offered a chance to grow and change and learn new things about ourselves. We challenge ourselves to try new things and open ourselves to new experiences. Some people rode a rollercoaster or went kayaking for the first time ever. Others faced fears to go parasailing or zip around the racetrack in a go-kart race. Some people saw dolphins in the wild skimming through the ocean.
I’m grateful to the many people who made these trips possible for more than 80 people Jubilee supports. These trips would not be possible without the dedication of our direct support professional staff, volunteers, and donors. Our Community Engagement department is funded by your donations, which allow us to create opportunities like these vacations for adults with disabilities.