Travel Angels Network Inc

What's Your Travel Wish?

By simply making your travel plans here you are creating a travel wish come true. By doing so you will make that other wish deep in your heart come true as well... your wish to help others. In turn your own travel wish for a dream vacation will create a way to pay it forward. Is there anything better than helping others? We think not and this way is simple and rewarding to all involved!

Are you ready to be a Travel Angel to someone who needs a Wish? We believe you are! Meet those who are making this innovative giving possible along with you!

Heather has many passions in life and Travel Angels Network has provided a way to combine many of those passions. Serving others and giving back, traveling to experience culture and the beauty of all that surrounds us, and writing are three of her greatest passions. Becoming the chief writer and web designer for Travel Angels Network is a natural fit and a dream come true for her. Heather's freelance work history and passion to give back was exactly what Julie Ann, the founder, was looking for when she needed to rework her entire web presence. Her experience in writing and web design have proven to help provide that virtual presence that the Travel Angels Network needs to sell travel for the ultimate goal of giving back and paying it forward.

"I am extremely compelled to help others in any way I am able. I thank God because I am blessed beyond measure to be able to serve others. That is exactly what I intend do with the team at Travel Angels Network - and I am so very excited to do that!," Heather shares.

She and her husband, Everett, have been married for nearly 20 years. They work together as freelance creative project designers in graphic arts and web design. They are blessed to have a teenage daughter who is training to be a professional ballerina. Together they all three have a ministry that reaches out to youth to affect their lives in positive lasting ways for God.

The concept and enterprise of Travel Angels Network was set into motion in 2006 and hasn't stop gaining momentum ever since. Even though

Julie Ann is no longer able to work, her smile and faith drive those within Travel Angels Network to press forward for the greater good - to serve.

As the original driving force and visionary behind Travel Angels Network at that time, Julie Ann's goals are being carried out by her husband, Lyle, and the many dedicated individuals involved with Travel Angels Network. Suffering from cancer and the disabling Menier’s Disease didn't stop Julie Ann from making sure to find others who believed in her dream and revolutionary concept of paying it forward through travel and granting wishes. In fact quite the opposite happened. Contracting the illnesses after the enterprise was off and running, Julie Ann used her condition to show the world her dream and recruit a solid team around her - these two life-changing experiences turned into something that motivates change.

The Travel Angels Network team now carries on the legacy and dream she started all those years ago.

Much of her inspiration came from her upbringing in Australia where her mother and family raised her to be socially conscious, accepting of all humanity, and to do what is morally right in all situations.

She loves to travel and did so extensively when able - seeing the world and experiencing other cultures and countries. Early in life she was very involved with theater, acting and commercial voice over work for radio & television commercials. Prior to her moving to the United States, she also served others as a reservist in the Australian Army. She obtained a Bachelors of Business & Marketing Degree during her military service time. Her extensive experience in marketing, advertising, and event management has benefited greatly the many major corporate, civic, and business groups she has worked for over the last 25 years.

Travel Angels Network would not be what it is today or headed in the direction that it is if it had not been for the vision and early planning all

those years ago by Julie Ann.

Julie Ann currently lives in Temecula, California with her husband Lyle, a retired Marine Lt. Colonel, and two adult children, Brittany and Nicolas. Together they have been a foster family to inspire even more children.

Lyle started Travel Angels Network with his wife, Julie Ann, many years ago; the two of them founding the principle concept on the simple caring notion that they wanted to serve others and make a difference in as many lives as possible. Today, he carries on their dream together with the many others involved, as Julie Ann know became unable to due to her illness.

Lyle has served our country in various ways through the Marine Corp. including but certainly not limited to: Assistant Chief of Staff, G-1, in the 1st Marine Logistics Group; Executive Officer, Security Battalion at MCB Camp Pendleton; Commanding Officer, Support Detachment, MAG - 13; and by being honored with the position of Lt. Colonel, the title to which he still holds today in his retirement from the Marine Corp.

Lyle has a wealth of knowledge from his career life which includes security management, anti-terrorism force, naval security managers training, military justice training, humanitarian response training, and a BS in Business from the University of Arizona. He is currently the Executive Director of Building Operations & Loss Prevention for Panda Restaurant Group Inc. He also volunteers through the Panda Group's community events as yet another way to pay it forward with joy.

He has enjoyed his many volunteer positions as well including being a Boy Scout leader, Big Brother mentor, and soccer coach to youth. He loves animals, children, and is an upstanding family man. Lyle is dedicated to his family and enjoys spending time with his wife and daughter as well as playing basketball and working out with his son. Riding motorbikes has been a long time passion as well.

He and Julie Ann have raised two teenagers along with fostering children that have run into hardships. They have impacted numerous people for good in life and continue to press on in that mission together in heart and spirit through Lyle's efforts in Travel Angels Network - "to carry on the mission at hand."

William has a deep desire to help those in need of assistance. He believes it is imperative that no one be deprived of the joyous things in life, and vacationing is one of those ways they want to help those with special needs. William's quote sums up it this way, “I love knowing we can make a difference in making someone's vacation an enjoyable one.”

He knows firsthand how tragedies in life can try to steal the joy out of living. At the age of 9 months he suffered third degree burns and lived 6 weeks of his life in a hospital struggling to survive as a result. It hit him as life lasting when he experienced the stares from people around him. He remembers the stigma this branded him with as far back as age 4 when a child who saw him asked “Ewe. What happened to him?”

He hid himself because in his words... “I felt my burns were ugly. I can understand completely how those with challenges feel.” The life changes didn't stop with the immediate accident. Nerve damage caused a 50% hearing loss over time. However, William has chosen to use that experience for bettering the lives of others. He chose to make a difference. The caring attitude of his parents was a great strength in his life because they taught the children in his large family to respect others at all levels.

He loves traveling and has been hiking in the mountains of Switzerland, visited various European countries, enjoyed going to parts of Asia, and of course has crossed the U.S. to see its beauty.

Currently an Electro/Mechanical Engineering Specialist-Specializing in High Vacuum and Robotics for a high technology company, 30 years and counting, and now, as a Travel Reservation Specialist, he is a wonderful addition to the Travel Angels Network team.

William loves fishing, being at the Lake Home, shooting pool, and riding his Harley, but cherishes most the time he spends with his wife, Wendy, and his step-daughter, Sabrina.