Monograms Continues Efforts to Help Grant Wishes & Fulfill Travel Dreams With The Make-A-Wish Foundation®

In 2009, Monograms aligned with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, promising to provide ten free vacations per year and offering discounted travel packages to help the non-profit organization enrich the lives of children with life-threatening medical conditions. For three years, the all-in-one vacation package company has done just that: Helping to grant more than 50 international travel wishes, worth more than $150,000, including more than 130 Make-A-Wish® family members on vacations around the world.

One of these trips included a family vacation to Australia for 12-year-old Jordan. In a letter to the company, his dad wrote, "You didn't just hit a homerun for one 12-year-old boy, you won the Super Bowl, World Series, World Cup and Olympics for Jordan … From start to finish, the trip was out of sight – just the perfect itinerary and the ideal sequence and scheduling in the various cities."

Being treated for thyroid cancer, Kentucky teen Brianna dreamed of going to Rome. Monograms also granted her wish. In a follow-up letter, her mother wrote, "I have never seen her happier and we will hold the memories we made in Rome forever in our hearts."

"It has been a great honor to help grant wishes through the gift of travel," said Steve Born, vice president of marketing for the Globus family of brands. "We're so happy to touch and enrich the lives of these brave children around the country, helping foster their already amazing sense of hope, strength and joy."

Celebrating its third year as a Make-A-Wish sponsor this month, Monograms is inviting travel agents to help the company grant wishes and share their love of travel by donating frequent flier miles to the Foundation. The Make-A-Wish Foundation needs more than 2.5 billion miles (or 50,000 round-trip tickets) to grant wishes each year. This breaks down to 50,000 donated miles for one domestic round-trip ticket or 180,000 miles for one international ticket. Monograms is inviting its agents – and their clients – to donate miles to children in need through the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Visit the Monograms site for more information and/or to donate these much-needed miles.

"Many of our wish kids dream of seeing the world," said David Williams, Make-A-Wish Foundation of America president and chief executive officer. "Monograms is making it easier for us to grant travel-related wishes to kids wanting to travel around the globe and helping us give those children experiences that will change their lives forever."

The Make-A-Wish Foundation granted more than 13,800 wishes in 2011. More than 70 percent were travel-related wish experiences, including trips to such destinations as New York City, Hawaii and international locales. The most popular travel wishes Monograms' assisted the Foundation with were for wish trips to Paris and Rome.

ABOUT THE MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION
The Make-A-Wish Foundation grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy. According to a 2011 study of wish impact, most health professionals surveyed say a wish come true can affect their health outcomes. Kids say wishes give them renewed strength to fight their illness, and their parents say these experiences strengthen the entire family. Based in Phoenix, the Foundation is one of the world's leading children's charities, serving children in every community in the United States and its territories. With the help of generous donors and more than 25,000 volunteers, the Make-A-Wish Foundation grants a wish in the U.S. every 38 minutes. It has granted more than 212,000 wishes since its inception in 1980. Visit the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America at www.wish.org and discover how you can share the power of a wish®.

ABOUT MONOGRAMS
With nearly 40 offices staffed with more than 200 travel experts that extend as far as Asia and as wide as Europe, Monograms has a rich reputation as a company travelers can depend on to help them simplify travel planning while creating special dream getaways. Monograms affords travelers the power to personalize their vacation without having to take care of planning details or logistics, thanks to the on-site support of a Local Host. With Monograms, travelers are assured their vacation details are taken care of, including hotel, transportation, sightseeing and more, so they can simply focus on having fun. Monograms is part of the Globus family of brands, an award-winning, travel industry leader with more than 80 years of international travel expertise. The Globus family of brands is a member of Sustainable Travel International (STI).

Consumers can book a Monograms vacation or request brochures by visiting a preferred travel agent or by calling the following toll free number: 1.800.250.7614. For more information, please visit www.Monograms.com. "Like" us on Facebook.