Looking forward to trips this year, check below for upcoming trips!
Why RetailROI Trips?
Deciding to attend a RetailROI trip is one of the best decisions you’ll ever make. Going from “I WANT to do something” to “I am GOING to do something” is a powerful thing. There is no video or words that can take the place of seeing for yourself the positive change we can make in the lives of these children.
You may be thinking “I don’t know what I can do on this trip …how I can help”. Be assured we need people with all kinds of skill sets as we are doing everything from unpacking boxes and handing out school supplies to installing networks and designing computer labs. This is a diary from a recent trip so you can see an example.
Each trip will have a trip orientation call to help make sure every attendee is comfortable and set clear expectations of what the goals are for each respective trip. Once you decide to attend a trip, you will be contacted by a RetailROI staff member to talk about next steps.
Each trip is with a charity that is established in the country we are visiting and that is very familiar with the customs, cultural norms in that area. They guide us to safely and effectively serve – maximizing the strengths of all that go on the trips.
Upcoming Trips
South Africa
Each trip has incredible opportunities to serve children at several schools including Ithemba (ages 3-5), then elementary age students (JBay Academy, Ithemba, King’s Academy, and Oakridge) and then high school and beyond (Global Leadership Academy). Here you see the true impact and opportunity of how the people of RetailROI have helped transform an entire community. It also just happens to be in one of the most beautiful places in the world with all the Bucket List opportunities like seeing the elephants, lions, sharks, monkeys, lemurs and more in their natural environment. Three trips are scheduled for 2025.
1. February 13 to February 28th 2025 - Come for one week or two. The trip includes visits to Ithemba Preschool, JBay Academy and Kings College Primary School and Global Leadership Academy High School supported by ROI, as well as the LUO House children visit for a day of fun, Jbay community engagement, an opportunity to surf or swim in Indian and Atlantic Ocean waters, trips to Addo Elephant Reserve and a day / night safari where you will see Lions, Rhinos, Hippos, Zebras, Warthogs,
2. Summer 2025 - July / August - Dates TBD - Planned for Family opportunity to bring the teeneagers for a once in a lifetime experience to engage with the schools and see the beauty of South Africa.
3. Fall 2025 - October - Dates TBD - Planned to engage potential companies planning to sponsor Vision 2025 engagement with GLA Students....You will hear more on this at Super Saturday.
Guatemala - August 20-26, 2025
We will visit Guatemala and engage in projects serving and providing care to disabled youth. Participants will arrive in Guatemala on July 10 (Wednesday) and leave July 17th (Wednesday). . We will explore rural areas of Guatemala via our mobile clinics and provide care to disabled youth in need of assistive technology wheelchairs. The mobile clinics will include assessments for medical and equipment needs, provision of equipment, and training for medical and assistive technology care. Additionally, we plan to visit medical programs and an orphanage run by our partners. During this trip participants will get to experience the UNESCO World Heritage site, Antigua, Guatemala. Youth 14+ are welcome on this trip.
Jamaica - June 9 -16, 2025
This trip would be our 6th trip to Jamaica and it would be specifically designed so that our teens can attend. We will be visiting with kids from age 5-17 as part of this trip in the Chapelton, Jamaica area. As a stable, English speaking country we will have several opportunities to invest our time and energies with the time in up to 6 schools. Depending on who will attend, this will range from crafts and games to computer and life skills training. If we have enough teens, we may also look at some athletic competitions.
Honduras - June 28-July 2, 2025
This 4–5-day trip (departing on Saturday & returning on Tuesday or Wednesday) will be visiting our partner Casita Copan Children’s Home in Copan Ruinas. We’ll visit with the school children, install a second computer lab, get a understanding of the important work Casita Copan is doing for Orphans and Foster children by providing education, meals, a safe place to go after school, and foster house mothers. We’ll make a side trip to the Mayan Ruins, Coffee Plantation, or Macaw Sanctuary so you can get a flavor of the area. This is a great trip to bring your teens- ages 14+ and will be limited to 15 people. More information can be found here.
Dominican Republic - October 22-28, 2024
Join Mary & Jay Fagnano, founders of the Thrive in Joy Nick Fagnano Foundation, on their annual fall vision trip to the Dominican Republic. All accommodations and transportation are coordinated between Thrive in Joy and Nelson Paulino, the Director of Casa Misionera, in the Dominican Republic with whom Thrive in Joy has worked with since 2014 to plan their trips. If you like to cook—this is a trip for you! We provide a meal for 425 students at a school in Herrera, an extremely underserved community in Santo Domingo. We also spend a day with the children at the Remar Orphanage creating a fiesta for them and cheering them on when they entertain us with their Remar’s Got Talent show. If you have a talent, we might even be able to create an act of our own! We also have added the community of Nagua as a service destination. This small, rural community on the north coast of the island is a beautiful 2- hour drive from Santo Domingo. In this community, where many people live in homes with dirt floors, we’ve been able to help with home repairs and food distribution, and we are looking into opportunities to build a water purification facility. On the day before we return to the states, we take a day of R&R at a lovely boutique hotel right across from the ocean. We bond as a team, bring our love, and whatever our gifts might be--whether it’s chopping vegetables, throwing a baseball, giving a piggyback ride, or listening to what the children want to tell us (we always have lots of translators, so don’t worry if you don’t speak Spanish). Many of our team members have joined us on multiple trips…Warning---this could become addictive!