East Hartford, CT (PRWEB) August 09, 2011

The SYTA Student Youth Foundation (SYF), the philanthropic sister organization of the Student & Youth Travel Association, marked the start of its second decade of operation in July by bringing a group of 50 young adults and chaperones from New York City on a four-day, three-night sightseeing and mentoring tour of the national historical sites of Eastern Pennsylvania.

SYTA member companies from Philadelphia, Lancaster, Hershey and Gettysburg, came together to create a four-day experience of a lifetime. The outreach event was part of the Silver Lining Program, created in 2000 as a vehicle for student and youth travel industry professionals to "give something back" to disadvantaged students and youth who overcome personal crises to produce extraordinary outcomes for themselves or for other people.

Travel Insured International® is represented in the Silver Lining Program by Kevin Herlihy, Travel Insured's Director of National Accounts, who served as an industry chaperone to the New York group on its visit to Pennsylvania. Herlihy is a second-year member of the SYF Board of Directors, which organized the trip in cooperation with the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) and its Division of Runaway & Homeless Youth. The New York City DYCD program seeks to stabilize the lives of young people who have left their homes by helping them resume and complete their education, find job opportunities and, whenever possible, reunite them with families from which they have become separated.

Each year, SYTA members sponsor deserving students and young adults for the SYF Silver Lining trip from the city in which the year's annual SYTA Conference is being held. The 2011 SYTA Conference is scheduled to meet from Aug. 19 to 23 at the Sheraton New York and Sheraton Manhattan in New York City. Travel Insured International®, which contributed a combined $14,000 to the SYF in 2009 and 2010, will again step up its SYF support when Herlihy makes a presentation at this year's New York City SYTA Conference.

Philadelphia Silver Lining Highlights

Young adult participants in the Eastern Pennsylvania Silver Lining trip began their four-day July tour in Philadelphia. The group visited Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell Pavilion, Carpenter's Hall, Congress Hall, Franklin Post Office and the Old City Hall before being hosted on a dinner cruise with Spirit Cruises. The Silver Lining group next visited Amish Camp for a guided buggy ride, farm visit and traditional dinner in Pennsylvania Dutch country. A third leg of the trip was a visit to Gettysburg to visit the Battlefield, Gettysburg Museum, the Gettysburg National Cemetery and site of Lincoln's famous address, and Dobbin House, a site of the Underground Railroad. The final day before the group's return to New York began in Lancaster for a tour of Franklin and Marshall College, and ended with time for farewell fun at Hersheypark in Hershey.

In addition to their daytime sightseeing activities in Pennsylvania, the 2011 Silver Lining trip participants attended hosted "leadership sessions" with speakers and individual mentors. Programs included guidance for the young people on managing their interactions with other people, how to establish and develop good friendships, and how to prepare for making important life decisions as they enter adulthood. The SYF group and Travel Insured International® are grateful for the generous hospitality provided them by Hampton Inn City Center in Philadephia; Spirit Cruises; the Amish Camp; Franklin and Marshall College; the Hershey Farm Inn in Ronk; Gettysburg National Park; the Gettysburg Courtyard by Marriott, and Hersheypark in Hershey.

About The SYTA Youth Foundation

Founded in 2000, the SYTA Youth Foundation is the 501C3 philanthropic sister organization of the Student Youth Travel Association (SYTA). The Foundation each year provides hundreds of deserving students and youth with the opportunity to participate in life-changing travel experiences with their peers that would otherwise be unavailable to them. In addition to supporting the Silver Lining Program, members of the SYTA Youth Foundation donate more than 100 travel scholarships to students during each school calendar year. The Foundation’s work helps to energize the formation of tomorrow’s global citizens.

Visit the SYF at http://www.sytayouthfoundation.org. Carylann Assante is the Executive Director of SYF in McLean, VA at 703-245-8089 and cassante(at)syta(dot)org