Our Progress Thank You

We are overjoyed to announce that, with your generous contributions, we have reached our first monetary goal of raising over $12,500!  
With your contributions, we are proud of our first year accomplishments which include:
We are a nonprofit 501c3 corporation. 

We continue to build our website and social media presence (We currently are getting this done in house by Gigi but we need help and are looking for an intern in this department). 

We and have booked our first trip to the Greek Islands in June 2025, a seven day cruise on Celebrity Cruises.
We have added an additional seven day stay on the mainland to acclimate to the time change and travel lag. (After extensive research, we found the effects of jet lag, especially with our medical conditions, would be tremendous in the first few days and made staying a few days in advance was a necessity.)

We have booked round-trip, nonstop flights from LAX (Nonstop flights were not available from San Francisco and the chances of the airline damaging Galen‘s powerchair increases significantly at each transfer).
We spent months researching popular and historical destinations in Greece and the islands included in the cruise, as well as excursions offered by the cruise lines available for travelers with mobility impairments.  What we discovered was quite disheartening yet expected, there wasn’t much available for us to choose from. Certainly not with all the things that we wanted to see during our stay.

We searched options for van rentals that would accommodate both our Powerchair and Manual wheelchairs and discovered that if available, they were pretty costly and we couldn’t keep them for more than 24 or 48 hours.

 We researched local transit options and discovered that  although we may be able use some of the systems, we would still need to be transported to those places, making the journey both troublesome and expensive once more.

We looked extensively into shore excursions offered by the cruise line, especially handicap accessible shore excursions and we discovered that the choices were minimal and it was quite costly for such a small amount of time off ship.

We continued to search online for tour guide options on the islands and the mainland and discovered that although the cost to get in to different museums and places of interests was relatively affordable, we still had the issue of transportation to deal with.  We feel very fortunate to have found an absolute incredible guide service for our entire trip with Hello Thessaloniki, a private tour guide and transportation service that can accommodate Galen‘s Powerchair and my Wheelchair for everywhere in Greece, including all the islands! He gave us an incredible offer to include our entire 14 days aside from the one day in Ephesus, Turkey, and the one day at sea for a price that was honestly less than it would cost us to go on just one of the excursions offered by the cruise line.  Their service also includes pick up and drop off at the airport and at the cruise port, air-conditioned vans, an English speaking guide and wi-Fi in the van.  In addition, it includes 24 hour service, extensive knowledge as lifelong residents of Greece with additions of incredible beaches and places to visit that only the locals would know.  They even offered photography and video services!  We are beyond ecstatic to have found such a gem of a tour guide!

We have had a professionally designed logo and are currently creating our line of merchandise including T-shirts and sweatshirts for continued fundraising.

We are still researching places of interest and accessibility, and are studying Google earth and maps and building Tripper Maps, a guide to each of our destinations complete with accessibility options, fulfilling our vision of providing an easy to follow map of all of our adventures for travelers with mobility issues around the world.

Thank you so much for your support and generosity, we could not have done it without you!  Please continue to support us by clicking on the link below and donating through GoFundMe.  Checks can also be sent payable to Freedom Trippers at Freedom Trippers, 1840 41st Ave. Suite 102, Box 318, Capitola, CA 95010.

 Donations  are tax deductible. A letter for your tax deductible donation can be sent upon request.