The Ultimate Pay it Back - continuing the Twitterific Tale

It is not very often I write of personal tales in the BRS blog, but this story deserves to be shared!

Its a story of Pay It Back.......

We just had a perfectly fulfilling week, giving back and more to those who literally rescued our doomed wedding and honeymoon 3 years ago! 

Those of you who missed the first installment of the Twitterific Tale, here is a very quick snapshot.........

In May, 2011 Matt and I were due to get married in a modest way but with a touch of luxury in the gorgeous Whitsundays. We chose the Whitsundays to support the local tourism comeback after cyclone Yasi all but destroyed the local tourism businesses in February 2011. The excitement was building with a week to go until our 7 days in China running the Great Wall of China Marathon, followed by a 4 day bareboat yacht charter, 3 nights honeymooning on beautiful Hamilton Island, a small ceremony,  stunning reception overlooking Hamilton Island, and plenty of fun and memories to be had....... 

But then came the news......we received a phone call from the company director we booked and paid for our entire Whitsunday adventure, they had gone into voluntary administration...my heart sank. Over $15,000 lost, not to be paid out, not to be honoured, not to be transferred, and not to be covered by travel insurance. OMG what to do??

Coming from two people who took 10 years to finally decide this was the right moment to get married, the universe was clearly telling us otherwise. 

Completely devastated, I spoke to a great friend Jennifer Frahm who just happened to be a social media activist, with just ONE single tweet our world totally changed. 

To cut a lonnnng story short, her tweet and Facebook posts were immediately picked up by our heros, Whitsundays Online, active tweeters of Whitsunday information and news, but also very proud members and supporters of the Airlie Beach Business Community. 

What happened next was truly incredible, amazing, and without the power of social media, would have been impossible. 

Airlie Beach businesses were literally scrambling to help us, offering free celebrants, accommodation, dining, tourism adventures and the list went on and on and on!!!

Because of the passion of Whitsundays Online and the AMAZING generosity and spirit of the Airlie Beach community, we had the most beautiful, romantic, and utterly perfect wedding experience ever!  

 

We always promised them and made the promise to ourselves we would go back and Pay It Back to thank the whole community who so kindly helped us out!

We did just THAT and MORE!!

Last week we took 32 of our BRS runners, supporters and children to Airlie Beach, so not just did Matt and I go back to say hi and thanks......32 others joined us on the adventure!!

For the Airlie Beach community we are PROUD TO PAY IT BACK by......

• having 22 Runners participating and promoting the fantastic event Run the Whitsunday Great walk 28km trail run! Not only did they run it, they trained hard and spread the words with friends and fellow runners for the 9 month lead up, and with our fabulous On Tour uniforms, they will continue to promote it for years to come!!
  
• Due to our numbers, we hired a private charter bus from Whitsunday Transit for our airport transfers, they were helpful and everything went soooo smoothly!
  
• We all but booked out all of Airlie Apartments, who were so kind to us, an amazing venue and hospitality, thanks Cathy and your fabulous staff!
  
• We sampled SEVERAL of the eating and drinking establishments Airlie Beach has to offer...to mention a few: Sorrento - amazingly got 30 delicious meals out in 20mins, Jane's cafe for yummy healthy lunches, Capers for catering for 20 sweaty runners for breaky, the Chocolate Cafe Airlie Beach for many a good coffee, the Gelato bar for post race refueling, Barcelona Tapas Bar for gorgeous sunsets, Shipwrecked for chilled out cocktails, Dominos for catering for our birthday party, the MANY pubs and clubs for the good times and dancefloors, not to mention all the little takeaway places who catered for our every need!!
  
• We made use of bike hire, jet ski tours, island ferries, and stand up paddle boarding!
  
• Sore muscles were eased by the local massage businesses,
  
• AND of course many of our female runners contributed significantly to the economy through some retail therapy!

Thank-you again Airlie Beach for being so welcoming, accommodating and such a fabulous place to holiday!!


We hope to see you all again very soon

Renae & Matt