We say, say, Vernazza, rebuild, restore, and preserve.
People have really responded to that message right from the beginning.
Vernazza is part of Liguria, and this region of Italy is known for very beautiful terrain,
which also happens to be very rugged, and I think the people are pretty rugged.
Michelle Lilly was in Vernazza on October 25th and narrowly escaped from her shock when the flood happened.
I remember being struck by the fact that there were already, right then,
people working together from Vernazza with shovels digging out the piazza,
and I remember thinking to myself, these people are crazy.
They needed to get tractors in here, they need to wait for the emergency responders,
but I actually realized that day that every person in Vernazza would say,
okay, we need to do something to help this town.
Myself and Michelle and Michelle, we are three women who it's hard for us to accept no.
So we have this mindset, which is if we put our mind to something and we do very little baby steps,
but day after day after day, we will accomplish what we're setting out to do.
We all said to each other, let's work together and let's start a nonprofit
because we need to get the word out and raise funds so we can help the community to rebuild,
and we will focus on what we do best, which is talking to people who speak English
because we're American, American audience, worldwide tourists,
because people love Vernazza and they want to help if they knew what was going on.
I think Rick Steves is a remarkable man.
He really believes in connecting with people.
What I don't think that most people know is what a very generous, big-hearted person he is
because when he found out, he did everything in his power to get the message out that Vernazza needed help.
Some people sent $5, some people sent $10,000.
The children of Vernazza did a lemonade stand because, of course, Italians don't do a lemonade stand,
but we're three American women who have kids, so we organized a lemonade stand.
We were surprised by the amount of goodwill that people had toward Vernazza,
which we thought was our own personal connection, but I do think Vernazza's a magical place,
and I think a lot of tourists and travelers and visitors feel this connection.
Volunteerism is the combination of volunteer and tourism.
What we like to say is what happens when you take tourists and you give them an opportunity to become temporary residents.
We have now finished four seasons.
We've welcomed 961 travelers in 115 excursions to help over 20 local farmers
to restore vineyards and restore olive groves and rebuild stone walls and terracing,
and, of course, everyone's favorite, which is harvesting grapes.
2017 will be a great new year.
We will definitely continue with volunteerism excursions,
and we are excited because 2017 should be phase two of the Renaissance of Vernazza.
We already completed, in 2015, the Piazza Marconi.
We call it the Piazza that Love Rebuilt.
It is an incredible symbol of cooperation and support that Vernazza received
from literally thousands of friends from all over the world.
And we will now complete phase two, which means the Fontanavecchia area is the area of Vernazza
that is above the train station, right along the canal,
and it was completely destroyed by the flood.
I am so grateful and I'm in awe of the amount of people from all over the world
who have shown their support to Vernazza in our time of need and continue to do so.
