OUR 31ST WEEKLY UPDATE REGARDING THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC AND SOME ENJOYABLE VIDEO ENTERTAINMENT FOR YOU
FRIDAY, October 9
FROM CHRIS KRARAS
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD
“TRAVEL – THE ONLY THING YOU CAN
BUY THAT MAKES YOU RICHER!”
DEAR FRIENDS:
As we mentioned last week, we have all been concerned about our President and First Lady having contracted COVID-19 recently. It appears that, through everyone’s prayers and wishes, both of them are recuperating well and, hopefully, are out of danger. Regardless of anyone’s political affiliation, it is important that we all support and pray for the leaders of our country. Once again, this is a stark reminder that we must all continue to keep our guard up against this terrible virus.
So, as I begin this Weekly Update regarding the Coronavirus itself, unfortunately, some of the news has not been the greatest over the last week or two. It appears that in many of the states, the numbers have surged up slightly which is, obviously, a source of concern. Some of the states are closing down during this time, but some are looking to reopen to allow folks to once again function at somewhat full strength so that we can continue with our lives in a good and positive direction and keep our economy moving. As I read over so many reports from many news outlets throughout the country, I was able to come up with a few very interesting and positive thoughts regarding the Coronavirus. As one who always tries to stay as positive as possible, I thought I would share some of these with you as Group Leaders so that you can also share them with your Group Members:
1) The number of people who are dying directly from this virus is nothing close to the rates that we experienced early in the virus outbreak.
2) As proclaimed by one of the leading Health Advisors in the world, “We are in a living-with-the-virus phase.” Basically, the feeling is that until we get to the point where there is zero infection rate, we need to just continue to live with this and try to have as normal a life as possible.
3) A famous quote that I pointed out to you a few weeks ago is still one that we are trying to live with. That is, “Live with it and limit it.” Experts say that dealing with this virus in this manner is working, but it is still far from normal.
4) The number of infections on a weekly basis have remained relatively steady with just a slight increase. But, the most important thing to note is that, just like in the case of our President and First Lady, the severity of the infection has been minimized dramatically. Not nearly the same percentage of people are being hospitalized and/or being put in Intensive Care or on ventilators.
5) There are at least seven different vaccines that are in Phase 3 of the process needed to get the vaccine to us to be distributed. Hopefully this will be before the end of the year. Those companies are Moderna, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, CanSino, Sinopharm, and Sinovac. Every one of them are waiting for final approval which could happen any day and that gives us, certainly, a major ray of hope.
So, with that little bit of semi good news, I thought it would also be time to share with you that we have been so fortunate to have many of our Groups out on the road and traveling. This past week alone, we had a Group from Nashville enjoy a trip to Vermont & Pennsylvania. We also had a group from Ohio enjoy our Castles of New York trip. We had a Group from Alabama that traveled all the way to Ohio to enjoy our Ohio Amish package. We had a Group from Michigan who had a wonderful time on their trip to the Atlantic City Casinos. We also had a Group from Ohio visit the Sight & Sound Theater in Lancaster, along with a tour of the Amishlands. These are just a few of the Groups, and we have included a few pictures of these Groups below as they all enjoyed the freedom of being allowed on the road again. Again, I want to emphasize that, with all of these trips, we are so blessed that we have had absolutely no issues regarding anybody contracting the virus before, during, or after the trip. That gives everybody some wonderful hope.
I just wanted to quickly remind everybody that all our White Star Staff is continuing to call each and every one of you Group Leaders to discuss with you opportunities, specials, and options for travel in 2021. All we ask of you is that you check the video that you can find on our website and that is being sent to you in a different email. We then ask you to, once again, page through our Booklet of Specials. That Booklet is the one that is pictured here in this email. Finally, just give our Staff Members the courtesy of a few moments of your time to go over the options that are available to you and some special incentives that we have built into those options.
Also, I would like to take this opportunity, if you will allow me, to heap some thanks and praise upon my very wonderful White Star Tours Staff. They have never wavered in their devotion to continue working as hard as they could – whether it would be virtually from home or in our socially-distanced office setting, to get the job done for all our many Group Leaders around the country. Many of these fellow employees have been with us for thirty and forty years of our 50-Year Anniversary, and we couldn’t be more proud of them and could not be more thankful. In many ways, I am really a lucky guy.
So, for some entertainment that I always like to leave you with every week, I have a couple treats in store for you. The first one features the small entertainment group that I always take with me as we visit all your cities during our Group Leader Luncheons every year. This is a very talented husband and wife duo that have a group called The Family. In this one, you can enjoy them performing “Let The Good Times Roll”, and I hope you enjoy it by clicking here.
The next piece of entertainment that you might want to watch is a very memorable performance at the famous Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN featuring the incredible talents of Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood. Take a few minutes and enjoy these great entertainers by clicking here.
SO WITH THAT, I BRING THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE TO YOU TO A CLOSE AND I CONTINUE TO WISH ALL OF YOU A BEAUTIFUL FALL SEASON. ENJOY YOUR FAMILIES AND FRIENDS, AND PLEASE STAY SAFE AND HEALTHY. MAY GOD BLESS YOU ALL!
“TRAVEL AND CHANGE OF PLACE IMPART NEW
VIGOR TO THE MIND.”