In 2008, longtime friends and Boston By Foot supporters Bill and Lia Poorvu established the Flansburgh Travel Fellowship to honor Earl and Polly Flansburgh and the spirit they evidenced by creating Boston By Foot. Every year, one or more deserving BBF volunteers are awarded the opportunity to travel to a city best experienced in our favorite way: by foot!

This year, we were fortunate enough to send three of our fantastic volunteer guides on enriching and educational trips to London, Quebec City and San Francisco. During their journeys, Bob Perkins, Harry Friedman and Jeanette Maria gained new and valuable perspectives as they explored a new city in depth. These constructive experiences are extremely useful to our organization as a whole; we can use them to learn and improve our own tours, something that we always strive to do.

Aside from benefiting Boston By Foot as a whole, we also feel that these trips are a fantastic way to individually reward our wonderful and well-deserving volunteers! They put so much work into this organization, and we’re so thankful for everything that they do.

This past Monday, the BBF volunteer community gathered to hear Bob, Harry and Jeanette recount their expeditions. Jeanette visited San Francisco to explore the gorgeous residential architecture and various ethnic neighborhoods of the city. Harry traveled to Quebec City, which mirrors Boston in its size, age, and European influence. Bob flew across the pond to London to further explore Boston’s British roots.

Clearly Jeanette, Harry and Bob were enthusiastic to share their newfound knowledge from their respective trips with the rest of the BBF community. We’re so thankful for the Poorvus for allowing us to provide our guides with this amazing educational opportunity, and we can’t wait to see where our future fellowship winners will explore next!