More than just a vacation
Gal-Eventing gives women a chance to live their dreams
Some vacations offer a change of scenery, fantastic food and a chance to get away from it all.
Then there are others that also provide opportunities to achieve goals, live out dreams, meet new friends, gain strength and confidence, realize potential and reenergize body, mind and spirit.
(Courtesy of Gal-Eventing)
(Courtesy of Gal-Eventing)
Gal-Eventing will hold its first event, A Spring Fling and Afternoon Tea Party, from noon to 5 p.m. May 18 at the Lisle Hilton, 3003 Corporate West Drive, Lisle. Activities include 30-minute workshops on building an herb garden, SereneTeaz, travel fashions and feng shui. A high tea party will begin at 4 p.m. Vendors will offer a variety of women's products.
Admission is $12 or $6 for Gold Key members.
Call 630-778-7010 or visit www.galeventing.com.
Which would you rather take?
If you're a woman with a sense of adventure and a few unfulfilled ambitions, you might want to go Gal-Eventing, a new travel experience incorporating life-enhancing activities designed with women's interests in mind.
The concept was developed by Sandi Pufahl and Sue Arko, tour operators and event planners who run travel agencies in Naperville and Gilbert, Ariz., respectively. Pufahl, owner of Fancy-Free Holidays for almost 20 years, said the Gal-Eventing trips are part of a healthy, active lifestyle series bringing women of all ages together. Activities can focus on such interests as cooking, the arts, fitness, sewing, gardening, horseback riding or anything else clients want to do in locales near and far. Gal-Eventing also encourages women to build new friendships and take the time to care for their needs.
"Women, historically, have been caregivers," Pufahl said. "... All that time she's been a caregiver, she's been a dreamer. She's had dreams and goals. Some of them can't even put them into words. Others have those dreams and goals and they might not ever get them completed. One of the premises of Gal-Eventing is (for you) to bring those dreams to us and let us help you fulfill your dreams. Dream, believe, achieve - that's what we say. And it doesn't matter how little or how big your dream is."
Pufahl, 58, who started Fancy-Free with $100, knows what it's like to have a dream. She had always wanted to hike the western islands off Ireland, and six years ago she did it. Now she is training to participate in the Dublin marathon in October, another longtime goal.
Pufahl is looking to input from Gal-Eventing members to put together a database of women's interests to be incorporated in specialized events, tours and cruises for women. Basic membership is free and includes access to the Gal-Eventing Web site (www.galeventing.com), participation in tours and events and an Internet newsletter. Gold Key membership ($45 annually) also includes member discounts, member special events, member tours and cruises and access to the Gold Key friends Web site.
Gal-Eventing will hold its first event, a "Spring Fling and Afternoon Tea Party," from noon to 5 p.m. May 18 at the Lisle Hilton. It will feature vendor booths and four workshops on topics of interest to women.
Future programs include a wine and roses festival in Portland, Ore.; a winemaking festival in Temecula, Calif.; yoga in Arizona; a celebration of song and dance in Tunica, Miss.; fun and fitness in Laughlin, Nev.; getaways to New York City; a spring Caribbean cruise; and watercolor painting in Ireland.
It also offers a city discover series with destinations to San Diego, Portland, Ore., Reno, Nev., San Francisco, Philadelphia, San Antonio, Seattle, New York and Chicago.
The Gal-Eventing staff includes three certified tour specialists, an elite cruise specialist and experts in event planning and world travel, especially tours of Ireland, where Pufahl has a second home.
Chris Milostan, 56, who does product development and marketing for Gal-Eventing, will lead the Ireland watercolor trip in October. An artist, teacher and creativity specialist, she said she plans to help women identify the tools they can use to create "a picture of the masterpiece of their life they want to paint."
She's not just talking about pictures they will paint of the Irish countryside. Masterpiece is also a metaphor for what Gal-Eventing is trying to achieve in women's lives, Milostan said, which is to give them a chance to unlock their full potential.
"When you put your dreams out there and support them with positive thought and action and put your feet to the street and take some positive steps, the right people come into your life," she said. "It's real important to have that supportive energy around your dreams."