For our community of supporters who believe learning is the journey of a lifetime. SPRING 2025
Celebrating Our 50th Anniversary: Thanks to Our Donors!
s we commemorate our 50th anniversary in 2025, we celebrate you — a cherished donor. Without your unwavering support, this remarkable milestone would not have been possible.
What began as a conversation in the early 1970s between friends Marty Knowlton and David Bianco blossomed into an organization that has redefined the perception of aging. Their bold vision challenged society, proving life after retirement can be filled with learning, camaraderie and joy. The profound impact we've had on countless lifelong learners over the past five decades would not have been possible without thoughtful, committed donors like you. Together, we have changed the world!
To honor our 50-year journey, here’s a look at some of the milestones we’ve achieved, thanks to your generosity:
Your steadfast support has allowed us to innovate, adapt and grow, ensuring that older adults everywhere can continue to experience the joy of discovery.
1975: Elderhostel was officially launched with seed funds from nine foundations who shared our belief in the importance of lifelong learning.
Early 1980s: With the creation of the Annual Fund, Elderhostel expanded to all 50 states and launched its first international programs. The Annual Fund helped close the gap between tuition and program costs.
1985: Our first programs for grandparents and grandchildren began.
1995: The Legacy Society was established to recognize donors who made contributions through bequests and other planned gifts.
2001: Elderhostel programs expanded to 100 countries around the world.
Celebrating 50 years of learning.
CELBRATING OUR 50TH ANNIVERSARY (continued from cover)
2003: The first endowed scholarship fund was established with a $10,000 donation, providing the opportunity for donors to establish a named scholarship fund that would be awarded in perpetuity.
2017: The first endowed Caregiver Grant Fund was launched with a $51,000 donation.
2020: In response to the pandemic, Road Scholar introduced Road Scholar At Home online programs, allowing lifelong learners to continue participating virtually. Over 44,000 older adults engaged in online learning last year alone.
2025: Road Scholar celebrates 50 years of adventure, learning, camaraderie and joy, honoring donors who made this journey possible.
From securing a headquarters in Boston to navigating challenges like the pandemic, donors have been the lifeblood of our community. Your steadfast support has allowed us to innovate, adapt and grow, ensuring that older adults everywhere can continue to experience the joy of discovery. We continue to look ahead, creating new adventures to meet the evolving needs of today’s older adults, including solo, women-only and slower-paced learning experiences.
In this issue, we honor four incredibly generous donors: Mabel Clark, Rachel Ledbetter and Gretchen and Jerry Davis. We celebrate these trailblazers and all of our supporters who have made a lasting impact on our mission.
The joy of learning unites us all, near and far, as we embrace our shared passion for lifelong discovery. As we celebrate this milestone, I thank you for your ongoing commitment. Remember, learning is truly the journey of a lifetime.
Sincerely,
James Moses Road Scholar President & CEO
We invite you to join us for an unforgettable free online lecture with one of the most renowned historians of our time, Doris Kearns Goodwin, on Thursday, April 3.
As part of our 50th anniversary celebration in 2025, this special gift is our way of thanking you for your continued commitment to our mission. Goodwin will draw insights from her book “Leadership: In Turbulent Times,” offering perspective and analysis on the resilience shown by presidents she has studied closely — Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson — showcasing how we, as a country and a people, have overcome adversities in the past and emerged stronger. ENROLL ONLINE AT www.roadscholar.org/Goodwin-Lecture
In celebration of our 50th, we’d love to hear your Road Scholar tales of adventure, learning and friendships. Share them at www.roadscholar.org/rs-stories
Road Scholar educational adventures are created by Elderhostel, the not-for-profit world leader in lifelong learning since 1975, dedicated to serving the educational needs of older adults. Road Scholar Impact is published for the friends and supporters of Road Scholar. The purpose of this publication is to provide accurate information of a general character only. For advice in specific cases, the services of an attorney or other professional advisors should be obtained. The Elderhostel and Road Scholar logos, website addresses and other marks are owned by Elderhostel, Inc. If you wish to modify our communications with you, please go to www.roadscholar.org and log in to your account, or call us toll free at (800) 454-5768. Please direct inquiries to Ann Simanis, Road Scholar, PO Box 56033, Boston MA 02205-6033; telephone: (877) 737-0664; e-mail: ann.simanis@roadscholar.org.
Did you know you can honor a loved one or create a personal legacy by funding an endowed gift at Road Scholar? With an endowed gift, your principal donation is never spent — it’s invested to generate income forever. You can establish a named scholarship to help someone experience a Road Scholar learning adventure or endow a Caregiver Grant to give a caregiver muchneeded respite.
of Gratitude Expressions Over the Years
OUR DONORS GIVE WITH THEIR HEARTS
Road Scholar — a beacon of knowledge and exploration — shines because of the unwavering devotion and generosity of individuals like you.
Thanks to the generous support of our donors, Road Scholar has been able to bring the joy of learning and exploration to over six million participants since our inception in 1975. Here, we honor a few of our early champions whose visionary contributions paved the way for future generations of Road Scholars. With heartfelt gratitude, we celebrate these trailblazers who share our belief that learning is the journey of a lifetime.
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Gretchen and Jerry Davis
With 91 Road Scholar programs behind them, secondgeneration participants Gretchen and Jerry Davis have traveled the globe. From the Greek Islands to Paris, Portugal to Dublin, the Davises have covered a lot of ground since 1999, when they first traveled to Costa Rica with Road Scholar. Over the years, they have been generous
donors, supporting Road Scholar at the Leadership level and beyond.
In 2011, Jerry and Gretchen endowed the Norcross Scholarship Fund so others could experience the joys of Road Scholar’s life-changing adventures. The scholarship honors Jerry’s parents, who instilled a passion for lifelong learning in him. In 2018, Jerry
Jerry Davis.
and Gretchen established the DreemKumTru Caregiver Grant Fund, named after a small camp where their family gathered for over 50 years.
↑ Gretchen and
↑ Mabel Clark and her husband, T.C., traveled the world.
IN MEMORIAM:
Mabel Clark
An extraordinary woman, Mabel served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and as a program officer for the U.S. Agency for International Development in Southeast Asia, East Africa and Washington. During her 11 years of marriage, she and her husband, T.C., participated in 90 Elderhostel programs (as it was known then). She continued to enjoy more learning adventures after her husband passed away, bringing her total number of programs to 150!
A generous friend who believed in Elderhostel’s mission, Mabel made her first major gift in 1998 and continued to make gifts over the years as a member of the Legacy Society and the Founder’s Circle in 2007.
In 2003, Rachel initiated the Franklin Nelson and Harriet Lyon Jewett Scholarship Fund in honor of her grandparents’ contributions to education. Her grandfather worked as a professor, and her grandmother was one of 10 young women in the first class of female students admitted for full credit at West Virginia University in 1889. So inspired by the knowledge that her mother would have loved Road Scholar, Rachel endowed the Lydia C. Dunlap Scholarship Fund in her mother’s memory in 2007.
Anna L. Finds New Motivation Thanks to a Caregiver Grant
After losing her mother, Anna L. had lost her zest for life — until a radio advertisement on NPR about Road Scholar’s Caregiver Grants caught her attention. Little did she know that the grant — and her seven-day experience with fellow Road Scholars — would change her life in ways she could only imagine.
The youngest among her siblings, Anna was still living at home in California with her mom, Mary Louise, when Mary Louise was diagnosed with breast cancer 15 years ago. “It became my job to care for my mother,” says Anna. “My siblings thanked me for my sacrifice and for caring for her,” says Anna. “But I thought, what sacrifice? I enjoyed being with my mom. Even the hard parts of the
job, like middle-of-the-night wakeups, timing her medications and cooking meals were all part of our life and didn’t bother me.”
From her initial diagnosis, Mary Louise gradually declined as complications from her medications began to arise.
“Taking care of mom for the last 15 years was the best unpaid ‘job’ I
have ever had,” says Anna. “The doctors warned me that I was going to lose my mom soon, but I was shocked when the day arrived.”
Once Mary Louise passed away, Anna found herself alone. Applying for a Road Scholar Caregiver Grant, Anna was hopeful that a learning adventure would help her honor her mother’s memory and jumpstart her own life. Upon receiving the grant, Anna chose Rafting Grand Canyon’s Granite Gorge last fall. “This adventure helped me achieve two things Mom always encouraged me to do:
Grand Canyon’s Granite Gorge
keep learning and travel often. I wanted to show, by example, what a great job she did raising me.”
She was amazed at the physical fitness of everyone in her group despite being older than her. “It changed how I think about my health today,” says Anna. “I want to be as adventurous as they were. I also hope to be able to give back to Road Scholar in the future. These goals mean making changes in my life. Now, I’m inspired to make them.”
“My Road Scholar adventure was life-changing,” says Anna. “I’ve changed how I live and who I choose to spend time with. It wasn’t the place I chose, but rather the group of people who made my Grand Canyon experience such a success,” she says.
My Road Scholar adventure was life-changing.
Anna is forever grateful to Road Scholar and the donors who supported her educational adventure. “Road Scholar's generosity made it possible for me to keep learning and exploring, just like my mother would have wanted.”
In Memory K Harland Thanks Road Scholar for Giving Her the World
anderlust: a strong longing for or impulse toward wandering — an urge to discover new cultures and places. While some may feel it’s only temporary, others believe wanderlust is an intrinsic part of who they are. For Kathleen — “K,” as she was known to her friends — traveling the globe was her lifeblood.
K experienced her first taste of travel in 1940, when she began her 40-year career in the oil industry with Caltex Petroleum (now Chevron). Traveling for work and visiting family worldwide,
she was in her element. Following her retirement, K discovered Road Scholar — a new kind of family — in 1995. As she explored with Road Scholar, she expanded her passion for classical music in Germany, deepened her appreciation for food and wine in Italy and followed her love for wildlife on safaris in Africa.
As a longtime generous supporter of the Annual Fund, K furthered her commitment to Road Scholar with a contribution to the organization’s Capital Campaign in 2001. Her appreciation for Road Scholar’s educational travel experiences for solo travelers, especially during the holiday season, prompted her to make Road Scholar a beneficiary of her trust in 2003. Always an adventurer, K passed away in 2017, a few weeks after returning from Europe at the age of 97.
Why Name Road Scholar in Your Will or Trust?
Since 1975, Road Scholar has inspired more than six million older adults to learn, discover and travel. As we celebrate our 50th anniversary, we thank our generous participants and supporters who have named this not-for-profit organization as a beneficiary of their wills and estate plans. Road Scholar has received bequests of all sizes — from $5,000 to $50,000 to $1 million.
For many, leaving a bequest to Road Scholar is a way of giving back and saying thank you for the opportunities our transformational programs have provided. By naming Road Scholar in your will, you will have the satisfaction of knowing you are leaving a legacy of education to enrich the lives of older adults for years to come.
Your Legacy Shapes Our Future
Thanks to bequests and other planned and major gifts, Road Scholar can grow and develop innovative new programs to meet the changing needs of older adults. Our commitment to creating learning adventures that enrich the mind, fulfill lifelong dreams and forge lasting friendships will never change.
Have you already named Road Scholar as a beneficiary of your will or trust? If you have, please contact Philanthropy Officer Kase Martis at kase.martis@roadscholar.org or call us toll free at (877) 737-0664 . We want to thank you for providing your gift for the future.
10TH PROGRAM: Treasures of Russian Arts and Literature
UNFORGETTABLE ADVENTURE: Opera and Classical Music in Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig 2002 2003 2007
GIVING BACK:
K notifies Road Scholar that it is a beneficiary of her trust
1975
220 Elderhostelers enjoy their first program on five college campuses
44,600
people attended Road Scholar At Home programs in 2024
50 Years of Learning
An Interview With Road Scholar Chief Programs Officer Maeve Hartney
With 50 years of learning and discovery to celebrate, we wanted to reflect on the depth and breadth of Road Scholar programming through the years. To shed light on this, we’ve asked Road Scholar’s Chief Programs Officer, Maeve Hartney, to share her insights on the innovative programming we’ve developed — as well as what the future holds with our newest learning adventures.
Q:
What were Road Scholar’s first programs like in 1975?
MAEVE HARTNEY: When Elderhostel co-founders Marty Knowlton and David Bianco launched the very first programs in the summer of 1975, things were very simple. During the first week at the University of New Hampshire, six retirees stayed in dorms, ate cafeteria food and shared their love of learning. Four other campuses followed the same format: New England College, Franconia College, Keene State College and Plymouth
State College. Course topics included early American history, the Book of Job, American charcoal drawing, solar energy, genealogy, investing, canoeing and writing for fun and publication.
Q:
How have programs changed since you began in 1998?
MH: By the time I started, we were working with other institutions and the National Park Service. We streamlined logistics and replaced school buses with coaches. We also moved away from college campuses
and groups sitting in a classroom and added more on-site visits to museums and other locations to enrich our classroom discussions.
Q:
In what other ways have our programs evolved?
MH: In 1985, we introduced our Grandparent Adventures in the U.S. These brilliant programs welcomed grandparents and their grandchildren, and few other travel organizations offered them. In 1988, we added Grandparent Adventures to our international roster.
Can you tell us about Road Scholar’s online programming?
MH: We needed to connect with our participants during the pandemic, so in March of 2020, we launched online lectures given by Road Scholar instructors from around the world. Today, our online lectures and multi-day adventures continue to grow in popularity as we work with academics and lecturers. In 2024 alone, more than 44,000 older adults participated in virtual learning opportunities from the comfort of their homes. It really all goes back to our incredible community of donors and the people who stuck with us.
Q:
What’s new for Road Scholar?
MH: Interest has grown in recent years for women-only learning adventures, and we are excited to offer an assortment of programs for women, led by women. We’re also excited to offer our new Go-Solo learning adventures, programs that are only for participants traveling solo — and everyone has a single room.
137,993
Road Scholars attended learning adventures on-site and from home in 2024
We continue to add to our popular Winter in Southern Europe programs, which we created out of a need for affordable, off-season travel in gorgeous but lesscrowded locations in Europe during the winter. Our January 2025 catalog introduced two new destinations to this popular series: Winter in Cilento and Winter in Malta
Slower-paced programs are also extremely popular with our participants who prefer more relaxed, slower-moving itineraries. New for 2025, we are offering a wonderful slower-paced program, Film Comedy: History, Music and Laughter on Georgia’s Jekyll Island.
Q:
Please explain how strongly you believe in learning opportunities for older adults.
MH: I could go on for hours! I care deeply about Road Scholar’s mission and believe we positively impact people’s lives. Learning while traveling opens participants’ minds and makes the world a better place.
