Released on: September 11, 2007, 6:29 pm

Press Release Author: Travel Adventures

Industry: Education

Press Release Summary: David Snyder, founder and president of Travel Adventures,
Inc., recently traveled to China to visit Nanjia Primary School in the remote
northern province of Gansu.

Press Release Body: Nanjia Primary School has eight classrooms serving 300 plus
first through fifth grade students from the nearby mountains and a mountain
community. The contributions to build the school came from Travel Adventures (two
classrooms), Oprah Winfrey (five classrooms), and collected contributions of
Canadian teachers and students (one classroom), through the Free The Children
organization.

Free The Children was founded by 12-year-old Craig Kielburger in 1995 when he
gathered 11 school friends to begin fighting child labor. Today, Free The Children
is the largest network of children helping children through education in the world,
with more than one million young people involved in programs in 45 countries.

\"I first head Craig Kielburger speak at a conference a year ago. I was simply blown
away by how much a 23-year old university student had accomplished in his life. The
measure of this young man that most amazed me was that he had been nominated three
times for the Nobel Peace Prize. As the leader of a company that serves schools, I
wanted our company to be as helpful as possible to Free the Children and its
school-building effort.\"

David began his journey with a two hour flight from Beijing to Lanzhou, the capital
of Gansu. Gansu is a mountainous province in North Central China, just south of
Inner Mongolia. It is also one of the poorest of China's 36 provinces. Next, he and
his guide traveled for more than seven hours to Li County by automobile.

"Li County is a community of a half million residents in about 1400 square miles-an
area about double the size of Lapeer County," explained David.

Li County has 530 primary schools (Grades 1-5), 30 middle schools (Grades 6-8) and
three high schools (Grades 9-11). There are also more than 100,000 students
eligible to attend school. Supposedly, all of the students attend elementary and
middle school. However, David discovered during the trip that only about 70 percent
of the middle school-aged children actually attend school.

More alarming is the fact that only about five percent of the students attend high
school because it is a tuition based program and very few parents can afford the
$250 yearly fee. Tuition alone is about three times the average family's yearly
earnings.


David visited the school accompanied by representatives from Free The Children and
the Ministry of Education. Because they were the first foreigners to ever visit
Nanjia, the group was greeted by hundreds of the local residents as they approached
the school.

Their first view of Nanjia Primary School was of the large brick wall surrounding
the school containing a three-foot high Chinese inscription: "Knowledge can give you
a bright life. Knowledge can give you a great future."

\"I was really impressed by how a donation from our company and other organizations
could impact the current and future generations of Chinese youth. There are so many
places in the world where our support can produce similar results. Free the
Children is currently building schools in Kenya, Sierra Leone, Ecuador, China, and
(next year) India. The organization has built approximately 500 schools around the
world to date.\"

When the visitors reached the school they were greeted by about 60 students, the
headmaster and a teacher as well as parents from the community. They were given a
tour of the garden and courtyard, the eight classrooms, the five dormitories used to
house the teachers, and the bricked-in play yard. Throughout the tour they posed for
pictures with the students.

The group concluded their trip to Li County with a visit to Wenjia Primary School, a
Free The Children school built three years ago, and a mountaintop Daoist Temple.

"This was one of the most thrilling experiences in my life. I will never forget the
expressions of happiness on the faces of the children and the personal pleasure
gained from knowing that we can truly make a difference in the lives of others."

More information on Free The Children can be found at www.freethechildren.com


Web Site: http://traveladventures.com

Contact Details: 1175 S Lapeer Road
Lapeer, MI 48446
800-356-2737
www.traveladventures.com