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The Key West Aquarium CAST are ESP Award Winners! Bob Bernreuter, Natonal Sales Manager for Historic Tours of America The H.T.A. Entertainment, Service, and People (E.S.P.) Award carpentry skills while they were building decks and exhibits. Everyone is normally presented to an individual who has gone beyond their had to pull extra duties, perform skills outside their job descriptions, normal call of duty in their given field of endeavor. However, in the and cover for each other. Throughout this major undertaking, the case of the Key West Aquarium, the whole CAST stepped up offering show never lost a beat. All of us at HTA headquarters are in awe of their time and talent to accomplish a complete makeover of the the transformation of this attraction. Greg used his artistic skills in oldest attraction in Key West. repairing and repainting the huge fish mounts on exhibit, such as the Built in 1935 by the FERA (Federal Emergency Relief great white shark, the hammerhead shark, the huge goliath grouper, Administration) the exhibits and general building dynamics were in and the monstrous manta ray. Robert Murphy, who was a contractor need of a facelift to attract a market that has become overexposed to in a previous life, oversaw the planning and construction of the decks hype. Saturated by sophisticated marketing, our guests today require and new exhibits, like Stingray Bay, the tank where guests can touch the latest in visual, audio, and tactile stimulation just to get their and feed cow nose rays and southern stingray pups. attention. Like having your picture taken holding a live alligator… or Through their determination, expertise, and dedication to our petting a live shark. guests, the CAST of the Key West Aquarium, has proved deserving General Manager Greg Gerwin and his assistant Genya Yerkes of our company’s highest recognition and is therefore awarded the have pulled it off with the help of the entire Aquarium CAST. They Historic Tours of America E.S.P. award along with a check for five set a goal to upgrade the entire building using the talents of their hundred dollars which was divided up amongst the CASTmembers. own crew. CASTmembers were needed to stand in for those who had Continued on Page 13... In this issue... 28 - San Diego 33 - Puzzles, Games and Trivia 2 - From the Chief Conductor 12 - Tropical Shell & Gift 3 - Boston 14 - Washington, DC 34 - Historic Tours of America 7 - Key West 18 - St. Augustine 36 - Safety First 10 - Conch Tour Train 24 - Savannah 37 - Boston Tea Party Ships from the desk of the chief conductor From Small Acorns Grow Mighty Oaks I have always been intrigued at what few whose efforts can be accomplished in the lifetime of a resulted in enduring single person. icons of American I remember growing up when there business. was a company called Hot Shoppes. Again, all of these They no longer exist. Later, however, I companies were found out it was a fast food pilot program created in the span set up by the Marriott Corporation of one person’s life. whose founder, Bill Marriott, was also Truly amazing. What building a chain of hotels. Now, of also amazes me is Chris Belland Chief Executive Officer course, the Marriott Corporation is a the fact that some global behemoth in the lodging and food of these companies Aboard the new Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum. business. Most of this took place in the lifetime of Bill Marriott, Sr. still exist and are still His offspring have gone on to make it even bigger. growing like General Electric, Ford Motor Company and Disney. At the same time, Sam Walton started with a single, small grocery While I do not put myself anywhere near the same pantheon of store and an idea that people would respond to his bulk purchasing names mentioned, the very day this is being written has caused me power and low prices. He tried, at one time, to tout the concept that to reflect on my own life and accomplishments. This day is two days most items were made in the United States but, of course, that went before the opening of an attraction our company has just completed by the wayside as manufacturing moved offshore. The Wal-Mart in Boston, the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum. It is something of chain is now the single largest retailer in the world. which I am extremely proud, particularly because of extraordinary Similar stories can be told of other entrepreneurs in the efforts by so many people. There have been contributions by same century such as John Cash Penney (JC Penney’s) and more artists, carpenters, shipwrights, accounting and finance, writers, contemporary folks like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, the boys at Google and cinematographers and just too many other disciplines to name. The Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook. Setting the bar rather high, however, end effect is something we hope will do a credible job of telling the were entrepreneurs story of the Boston Tea Party, arguably the single most important HAPPY of another age like event leading up to the American Revolution. ANNIVERSARY Henry Flagler and I can only imagine what some of the great company builders have John D. Rockefeller thought as they grew older and were able to sit back and look at what whose wealth and their efforts created in terms of a valuable business that employed MARCH company, at the many people. Perhaps in this way I can relate to them. The Boston time, were bigger Tea Party Ships & Museum is a state-of-the-art facility that also Mariola Janicka-Williams, 16 Years than Bill Gates’ features two 18th Century ships bringing together both the very new Jeanne Fain, 15 Years personal fortune and the very old to tell the story of the patriots who marched from Oliver Layfield Long, 10 Years and the size of his Old South Meeting House down to Griffin’s Wharf and destroyed the Montgomery Triz, 10 Years company. There King’s tea in protest of taxation without representation. Dell Lunsford, 8 Years was Thomas Edison The part I reflect on more than anything else these days is the fact Justyna Janicka, 7 Years whose “Invention that it seems like it was only yesterday that I and my partners were Claire Hiller, 3 Years Factory” became fixing up vacant storefronts in a deserted downtown Key West. Over General Electric the years, we have opened several operations in five other cities. We and, of course, have certainly made some mistakes but as I look back on a career of APRIL Andrew Carnegie building a company, I believe we have done so with a sincere effort Mercy Herrada, 15 Years who sold his to do the best we could in an honest and forthright manner. When I Kevin Beede, 11 Years steel empire to tell people we are home-based in Key West, Florida, they are at first Michael Cates, 9 Years J.P. Morgan who envious and then simply amazed that we have built this company Timothy Atwell, 8 Years turned it into from a little speck of land off the southern tip of Florida. I guess I Bethlehem Steel. am too. Let us not forget In any event, from me and the company may I say thank you to MAY some of the others the city of Key West where it all started and I hope you will all have Joyce Unke, 18 Years like Firestone, Ford, the opportunity to visit our newest attraction that, like the Tea Party Robert Gregg Jr., 10 Years Hershey and Disney, event itself and our company, grew from a very small beginning. Magdalena Piekos, 7 Years to name but a very 2 The Nation’s Storyteller old town trolley tours of boston Boston Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum Opens! by Elizabeth Carey; Sales and Marketing Manager The Story... On November 29, 1773 a handbill, produced by the Sons of Liberty, was circulated among the citizens of Boston and its surrounding towns. It called for a meeting to be held in Faneuil Hall to discuss what was to be done about the “despicable tea” onboard the Beaver, the Eleanor and the Dartmouth docked at Griffin’s Wharf. Once the tea chests The handbill referenced an opportunity to protest “taxation without are overboard, representation”. The ensuing action by the colonists on December guests are invited to 16, 1773 resulted in the Boston Tea Party, “the single most important go below decks. The event leading up to the American Revolution.” captain is sitting at The original participants of the Boston Tea Party are long gone. his writing table, with Most of the original landmarks of colonial Boston are gone as well, scratching sounds of with the notable exceptions of such iconic buildings as the Old South his quill pen, he writes Meeting House, Faneuil Hall, the Old State House and the home of into the ship’s log patriot Paul Revere. The Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum honors about what has just those brave patriots and simulates one of the most consequential happened above deck. At the conclusion of the captain’s message, moments in American history. The opportunity to daily re-enact this “patriots” make their way onto “Griffin’s Wharf.” event underscores the universal message of man’s quest for liberty. “Griffins’ Wharf” is perfectly staged for great photo opportunities The Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum perpetuates the understanding and offers time to enjoy the surrounding views. At a timely signal, of that quest. guests are directed to the museum foyer where a re-enactor speaks about the tension in the city and the event of the Tea Party in retrospect.

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