Tauck's World of Giving annually engages thousands of guests in service work and funds projects that protect and enhance important tourism destinations around the world.  Since 2003, Tauck has supported conservation and volunteerism through the company's on-tour volunteer experience, which offers guests the opportunity to donate a few hours to park preservation and beautification projects.  Originally started in Yellowstone, the program moved to Grand Teton National Park in 2009.   Most recently, Tauck has participated in the Foundation's $16 million Jenny Lake campaign to renew the heavily visited area's trails and key destinations.  Here to discuss Tauck's partnership with the Foundation is Roni Goldberg, the creative force behind World of Giving-Tauck's philanthropic division.

How did the Tauck family start their world-renowned travel company?

In 1924, Arthur Tauck, Sr. traveled to North Adams, MA, on business.  He was struck by the landscape's beauty, yet surprised to see no leisure visitors.  He decided he should guide visitors to beautiful places he discovered on his business travels.  His first "Tauck tour" was a six-day, 1,100 mile, all-inclusive New England tour for $69.  As the company's popularity grew, Tauck's signature style of traveling-an approach that still drives the company to this day-was developed.  Tauck tours combine the indulgence of luxury hotels and superior dining with in-depth insights into local culture, history, flora, and fauna from a knowledgeable guide.  Over the past 89 years, the family-run company has expanded its offerings to over 100 upscale land and cruise itineraries in 70 countries worldwide.

Tauck is about so much more than travel; the company makes a commitment to nonprofit groups at work in the company's destination locations.  Tell us about some of the projects your company supports.

At Tauck, we're all united by a very strong sense of purpose-to offer truly life-enhancing travel experiences while giving back to the communities we visit.  Our Destination Grants provide funding that focuses on the conservation and cultural/historic preservation of the places we bring guests to around the world.  Recently we funded a local playground in need of repair in Norwalk, CT, near our headquarters.  Other recent projects took place in Tanzania (rain catchment & filtration systems for clean water), Germany (repair and refurbishment of historic gas lights), Canadian Rockies (flood relief), Alaska (enhancements to a wildlife conservation center), and New Hampshire (site enhancements to a historic village).

We also provide certain destination locations with hands-on support through both employee and guest volunteer efforts.  For example, in eleven years, 16,950 Tauck guest-volunteers have donated over 32,000 hours of labor at Yellowstone and Grand Teton alone, valued at over $600,000 by the NPS.

What prompted Tauck to support the Jenny Lake restoration?

Grand Teton National Park is a place we frequently visit and support through our guest-volunteer program.  More than that, the Jenny Lake trail system is in serious need of restoration to ensure a positive visitor experience and to make the venue more accessible to the park's diverse visitor population.  These needs fit perfectly with our desire to fund projects that focus on the conservation and preservation of places we visit, to make sure they are available for future generations to experience.

Jenny Lake is Grand Teton National Park's most visited destination. Grand Teton National Park Foundation would like to thank Tauck for its support of the Jenny Lake restoration project and our efforts to enhance and protect Grand Teton.

Now that Grand Teton's winter is in full force, nearly all animals that migrate have left the park and surrounding areas.  Interestingly, however, it appears that about 50 pronghorn, which normally leave the valley, might attempt to winter here.  Pronghorn are not well adapted to deep snow, and the majority of past attempts by them to survive the winter here have proven unsuccessful.  Other resident wildlife, which live in or around the park year-round, are drawing on essential winter adaptations for survival. The need to conserve energy is at a premium, making any unnecessary disturbance, for example by humans or dogs, potentially life threatening.   

• Moose use their long legs to move through deep snow to areas of preferred forage. Moose calves remain with their mothers through the winter and follow behind them while trail breaking through the snow. Moose also use their highly developed sense of smell to find only the most nutritious parts of shrubs under the snow.
• Hibernating animals, such as black and grizzly bears, benefit from deepening snows, which provide better insulation.
• Bison use their massive heads, thick skin, and muscular necks to move snow from side to side, creating craters where they can access buried forage.
• As days gradually lengthen, ravens, bald eagles, and great horned owls -- some of the area's earliest nesters -- begin courtship activities.
• Wolverines, Canada lynx, and wolves remain highly active, using large, snow-adapted feet to move through the environment.      
• Like the mother moose and her offspring, wolves also travel in single file lines through deep snow for efficiency.
• The American dipper, also known as the water ouzel, remains highly active, seeking areas of open, moving water where they bob on rocks between dives for aquatic insects.
• Teton range bighorn sheep hunker down on small, high elevation ridges blown free of snow.  Please obey posted closures designed to protect them and other wildlife during winter, and give them a wide berth if you are lucky enough to happen upon them in other areas.