The Legacy of Natalee Holloway … Safe Travels for Years to Come & Aruba has been Branded

Aruba’s loss is a college students gain. The disappearance of Natalee Holloway in Aruba in 2005 has not been forgotten. The memory and legacy of Natalee Holloway will be that future teens and college age students will be taught the risks of traveling abroad. Safe travels aboard does not necessarily target Aruba as the only unsafe place to travel; however, it has become the poster island for safety abroad and has been branded. However, in the case of Natalee Holloway it is not just a message of traveling safe while on vacation, it’s a message of what could potentially happen with an investigation afterword’s in a foreign land.

As long as safety abroad is taught and Natalee Holloway’s name is referenced so will Aruba. The two have become synonymous and Aruba’s bad PR clock will never stop ticking. In America, a human life is more important than tourism.

Waits said she likes to think Natalee is at Auburn now though, since has spent the last two years looking at safety guidelines for students traveling abroad for the foundation Beth Holloway founded in her daughter’s memory — the International Safe Travels Foundation.

“When I paid attention to Natalee’s case, what I saw was a young girl,” Waits said. “I saw every young person.”

Like Beth Holloway, Waits didn’t want to see anything like what happened to Natalee happen again. And, at the time, she needed a research topic for graduate school.

Waits decided to look into how aware students are of safety guidelines when traveling. Her research has become the curriculum Beth Holloway shares with traveling students across the country. Waits said it was first introduced to Auburn students studying abroad last spring.

“Students are pretty confident before they leave,” she said, but, when she asks them about the process of say, court proceedings, in their destination country, they are at a loss.

“No one can say what happens over there,” Waits said. “It’s not their fault though. They’ve just never been told.”

“Beth experienced this. She went through it,” Waits said. “She wants to make sure it doesn’t happen again.” (OA Now)

Beth Holloway, International Safe Travels Foundation & GradCity.com Offer College & High School Students Spring Breakers Safe Options … BREAK SMART

Spring Break can be the best of times … it can be the worst of times. Beth Holloway asks students to please be safe …

The International Safe Travels Foundation, the non profit organization Beth Holloway, and GradCity.com are jointly releasing important information to our youths in an effort to keep them safe while on vacation. With Spring Break upon us once again, high school and college students need to be more aware of the troubles they could potentially fins themselves in.

No one knows more the potential risks of their child traveling abroad on vacation than does Beth Holloway. Her daughter, Natalee Holloway, went missing in Aruba in May 2005 and has never been seen or hear from since. Beth Holloway has made it her mission in life to never have another parent have to suffer what she has endured in Natalee going missing and the continual road blocks and barriers put forth by the Aruba investigation and their legal system. Beth Holloway stresses the point to teens and college students across America … STAY SAFE WHEN TRAVELING!

PEABODY, Massachusetts, March 24 /PRNewswire/ - GradCity.com, a division of First Choice Student Travel, and the International Safe Travels Foundation, a non-profit organization founded by Beth Holloway, the mother of missing teen Natalee Holloway, have jointly released a series of steps students can take to make their travel experiences safer. This announcement follows GradCity.com’s 2007 launch of its BreakSmart (http://gradcity.com/breaksmart.php) campaign, which was created to encourage responsible decision-making while on Spring Break.

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Beth Holloway Speaks out to Teens on Safety, Faith and Hope: “I want them to remember Natalee.”

As Spring Break comes upon us again we are reminded of the of the story,  legacy and lessons learned from the disappearance of Natalee Holloway in Aruba. It’s not only about “Justice for Natalee” its also about providing a message of safety for all teens to follow. There is no better person to provide the message of Safety, Faith and Hope than Beth Holloway.

As Aruba continues to provide no answers or justice for the family of Natalee Holloway, Beth Holloway continues her message to teenagers and their parents so that no one ever need to meet the Holloway’s same fate. Aruba continues to wonder why they have been branded as unsafe and corrupt. Is it really that difficult to understand? Nearly three years have gone by and all look on and see that Aruba cares little to provide “Justice for Natalee”.

“I want young adults and parents to open a dialogue about safety and what you need to know about personal safety on these trips,” she said. “I want them to remember Natalee.”

Alabamians, along with the rest of the nation and the world, were riveted by the news of Natalee Holloway’s disappearance in Aruba on a spring break trip to the country in May 2005. Many could only guess at the grief of a mother losing her daughter so suddenly.

In the months after, and as Beth Holloway began to realize that Natalee may never come back to their Birmingham-area home, Holloway was thrust into the spotlight by others who wanted to hear her story and how her faith had grown in the aftermath.

Holloway responded by spending a year traveling from city to city and state to state sharing the message of an organization she founded in the wake of Natalee’s disappearance, the International Safe Travels Foundation, which was designed to inform and educate the public about how to stay safe when traveling internationally.

UPDATE I: Mother of missing student Natalee Holloway speaks to northeast Ohio students today

Scared Monkeys Radio Daily Commentary - Wednesday, February 13, 2008 - Tonight’s Dana Pretzer Show To Be One Of The Hardest-Hitting Shows To Date

• Dana introduces tonight’s radio show guests: Art Wood, Mike McIntyre, Peter R. DeVries, and Beth Holloway.

Download and Comment at ScaredMonkeysRadio.Com

The Dana Pretzer Show on Scared Monkeys Radio - Listen LIVE Monday, October 15 at 9PM Eastern - Guests Include Beth Holloway Twitty and LaDonna Meredith

This week, Dana welcomes:

• Beth Holloway Twitty discussing her new book, Loving Natalee: A Mother’s Testament of Hope and Faith.
• Also joining us will be LaDonna Meredith with part 2 of a discussion of human trafficking and the Jessie Foster case.

Download and Comment at the all new ScaredMonkeysRadio.Com

Programming Note: Beth Holloway will be on Scared Monkeys Radio Tonight with Dana Pretzer

BETH HOLLOWAY ON SCARED MONKEYS RADIO TONIGHT

A reminder to all … Beth Holloway will be on Scared Monkeys radio this evening on the Dana Pretzer show discussing her new book, Loving Natalee: A Mother’s Testament of Hope and Faith. Tired of hearing the same four questions asked by the MSM? Listen tonight and hear Beth Holloway discuss her book, her daughter Natalee’s disappearance and her faith that has got her through the terrible ordeal.

You also have the opportunity to ask questions. Leave questions in the comments that you would like to ask and we will try to get them answered.

Download and Comment at the all new ScaredMonkeysRadio.Com

Scared Monkeys Welcomes Richard as Contributing Editor: Discussing his thoughts on Missing Persons

Scared Monkeys asked me to do some occasional articles on the general phenomenon of missing people, and on individual cases.  Needless to say, I’m honored and pleased to do so.  Being asked to do these articles does not imply endorsement of my thoughts on Natalee Holloway or any other missing person case.   I am no expert in this area and make no claim to be one.

Those people who have read my posts in the last two years know that I work with the family of Amy Bradley, missing in the Caribbean since March 1998.  I also do volunteer research for International Cruise Victims, which is dedicated to promoting safety on cruise ships and alerting the public to the difference between the benign image the cruise industry presents and the level of crime that actually exists.  And I have done similar Internet research for the International Safe Travels foundation as time has allowed.
 
This weekend the world is awaiting the revelation of the fate of Harry Potter and other characters in that series.  People are lined up to buy the last book; enterprising or unscrupulous individuals are competing to release the details of what happens; and the media are prepping us for a full-scale assault on bookstores by fans, money in hand, raging to know who lives and who dies.
 
I wonder how many of these people will give a thought to the plight of families in the “real” world who want to know the same thing about their loved ones?  Harry Potter is fiction; the agony of these families is not.
 
According to Crime Library , 2,300 Americans are reported missing each day.  I don’t know if that’s a running total or if it is the number of new cases.  This source also says that 150,000 Americans were reported missing in 1980; the latest figure is 900,000.  To some extent, the higher figure may indicate that more attention is being paid to these people.  But whatever the accurate number may be, multiply it by the grief that any family must feel and be daunted at the thought.
 
Anyway, exact numbers are not important; the despair of the families is.  These essays are not about me, but I want to share one experience.  I began my interest in this field when Chandra Levy went missing in 2001, a case that gripped the nation then and that remains unsolved.  Before that I had never thought much about missing people; it was something outside of my experience, and had never happened to anyone that I knew.

Susan Levy, shown in her Modesto home with a portrait of her daughter Channdra

As I became interested in Chandra’s case, it occurred to me that there must be other missing people as well.  So one Saturday morning I went to the office where I was working and did random Internet searches for missing people.  Within half an hour I had seen more than I ever wanted to; hundreds – hundreds! – of smiling photos were on file, each a life that had value, each a life that may or may not have been ended, each a life that now was shrouded in mystery.  The answers were out there, but I didn’t know them.

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Beth Holloway Twitty to Speak About Spiritual Journey at Samford University

Beth Twitty will speak at Samford University in Birmingham, AL Monday November 13 at 7:30 p.m. in Reid Chapel. Beth will talk about her spiritual journey from the disappearance of her daughter, Natalee Holloway, though the ordeal of dealing with Aruba and offer safe travel tips.

Beth Holloway Twitty, mother of disappeared Mountain Brook, Alabama, teenager Natalee Holloway, will speak at Samford on Monday November 13 at 7:30 p.m. in Reid Chapel. Twitty, who became the focus of intense international attention after the still-unexplained disappearance of her daughter from a school trip to Aruba in 2005, will speak about her spiritual journey through the ordeal and offer travel safety tips.

The event is free of charge and open to the public. For event information, direct email to esboggs@samford.edu.

Come to Samford University and listen to Natalee’s mom.

Beth Twitty Speaks at Women’s Economic and Empowerment Summit in Sylacauga, AL

Beth Twitty keeps the story of Natalee Holloway alive as well as tries to empower woman and their communities. Aruba wonders why the story does not go away. It is because Beth Twitty does not go away. Beth Twitty discusses her “International Safe Travels Foundation” and her daughter Natalee. As she speaks to more and more people the message is twofold and similar to other woman’s message on empowerment,  be aware and protect yourself.

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Quick Chat with Beth Twitty from Wisconsin

Earlier today I caught up with Beth Twitty while she was coming from her speech  for the Wisconsin Sheriffs in Madison, WI. (Greta Van Susteren’s old stomping grounds.)  Catching her in the airport seems to be a knack of mine  these days. Beth told me that she still has not heard anything regarding the civil case in NYC; however, she continue speaking to law enforcement and students regarding “Safe Travel” and gaining more states to independently endorse her “Safe Travels” program.

I was also able to tell Beth that Aruba is announcing that their airplane passengers to Aruba were down for the first 6 months of 2006. Beth was not aware of today’s Amigoe article due to the busy schedule with her Madison speech and running to the airport. We further went on to discuss the fact that American passengers were down 11.5% while Colombians increased by 14.3%. That will be a major issue in the not too distant future. That discussion is for a future post.

What Aruba has not figured out is the the clock will never stop, that will allow their tourism to rebound. The reason is because the Natalee Holloway disappearance does not go away. Aruba thought it would in one week, they had planned on it. Beth Twitty’s speaking engagements discuss safe travel, but they also reference Natalee. The story will always be told, it does not go away. Beth Twitty is too strong a women to let the story go away without justice. So ever time Beth speaks to a crowd of law enforcement or students, she tried to prevent a future incident from occurring. In the process she brings up the specter of Natalee Holloway and Aruban tourism goes down again. One would think that Aruba could figure this out.

After some more catching up on some other  topics, questions and theories, I heard in the back ground the call for all to shut off their cell phones. Having got Beth in trouble in the past with flight attendants and cell phones, I figured I best not press my luck this time. We are working on some things that should be coming to fruition in the not too distant future.

We wish Beth Twitty a safe flight and Godspeed.