Tourism Cares, the travel industry’s charitable organization, organized more than 200 travel industry volunteers in Sacramento to help refurbish a number of historic and culturally significant sites across the city for World Tourism Day.  Tourism Cares for Historic Sacramento brought travel industry professionals from more than 80 travel industry companies to work on three sites significant to the city’s history as the starting point for the Gold Rush: Old Sacramento, Sutter’s Fort and the historic City Cemetery.

Volunteers used more than 150 gallons of paint and spread nearly 600 pounds of cement, painting historic buildings, rebuilding fences, archiving more than 300 artifacts and planting more than a dozen trees. The group volunteered more than 1,500 hours of labor to the city of Sacramento.

Tourism Cares for Historic Sacramento was the 11th annual give back project for Tourism Cares. As part of its mission, Tourism Cares brings the industry together to give back in two major projects each year – one in the spring and one in the fall.  The 2013 give back programs are scheduled for May 31, 2013, at Coney Island and Jamaica Bay in New York City, the tenth anniversary of Tourism Cares’ first volunteer project at New York’s Ellis Island in 2003. The fall program is slated for “America’s Home Town”, Plymouth, Massachusetts, Sept. 26 and 27, 2013.