Tourism Cares for Virginia City

6/1/07

A few weeks ago, four employees from ACIS/Travel & Company packed their bags and headed to the Wild West to help out with a volunteer project called Tourism Cares for America. ACIS sponsored Ben Colby, Mariah Jernberg-Briggs, Rebecca Heidgerd and Tom Heigham to participate in this annual event by Tourism Cares—a nonprofit whose mission is to bring the tourism industry together to give back through preserving many of our nation’s historic sites.

This year’s event was the first ever out West, and took place in historic Virginia City, Nevada. Virginia City was once the richest city in the U.S.—the site of the largest silver lode ever discovered and home to many historic figures over the years, including Mark Twain. Today, it is a tiny town outside Reno with a population of only 1,200 and few resources to tap in order to preserve its rich cultural heritage.

“I was extremely excited to visit Virginia City, Nevada,” said Tom Heigham, ACIS Tour Consultant. “As a child, I was fascinated by cowboys and Indians and the Wild Wild West (who wasn’t, right?), so I’m truly grateful to have been able to see an old western town first-hand. Who would have thought that a tiny desert town could be filled with such fun, amazing people?”

On May 18th, nearly 300 tourism professionals from around the U.S. put their muscle into Virginia City, restoring lampposts, a cemetery, the historic Opera House, and several railroad cars that will become part of a restored railroad line between Carson City and Virginia City. The local and state representatives were floored with how much Tourism Cares was able to accomplish, and gushed with praise for what they did for their tiny town. There was a visible difference in how the town looked before and after.

“We worked really hard and the day went by so fast. When the day was done we had scraped, sanded, sealed and painted an entire caboose and boxcar! I had such a great time. Afterwards, we were treated with a wine tour on a fully restored and renovated train,” said Mariah Jernberg-Briggs, Encore Tours Performance Sales Consultant.

ACIS is proud to participate in such a worthy endeavor and contribute to preserving our own history here in the U.S.

"Like ACIS, Tourism Cares is an organization with a mission that I truly believe in. Our work on the hurricane-ravaged Mississippi Gulf Coast in 2006 was incredibly rewarding, Virginia City was amazing,and I look forward to volunteering with them again next year," said Ben Colby, ACIS Overseas Operations.

Read about last year’s Tourism Cares project on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

See more photos of Tourism Cares for Virginia City.