Mary Beth Lynn, Your Vacation Plan – Overland Park, Kansas. (Photo Credit: Mary Beth Lynn)
WHY IT RATES: The annual showcase honored a pair of standout travel advisors who are giving back in unique ways.—Patrick Clarke, TravelPulse Senior Editor
The Destination Wedding & Honeymoon Specialists Association (DWHSA) named two advisors as winners of the 2026 Will Medina Spirit Awards in honor of one of its longtime members who was a leader in the field of destination weddings.
Denise Ambrusko-Maida (Travel Brilliant – Buffalo, N.Y.) won the Charity/Philanthropy Award for her sustained support of the GWK Academy (GWKAcademy.org), a nonprofit organization that believes every LGBTQ+ person deserves the chance to turn their dreams of parenthood into reality.
Mary Beth Lynn (Your Vacation Plan – Overland Park, Kans.) won the Pioneer Award for founding Assistants That Work (MaryBethLynn.com), a service that helps travel and wedding professionals leverage the power of life-changing virtual assistants in their businesses so they can grow with the best systems and processes while working less and having time for what's most important.
The Will Medina Spirit Awards recognize the "giving back" spirit of Will Medina, the late founder of the Destination Wedding Expert agency and creator of the award-winning Destination Wedding University training program for advisors.
"Will embodied the idea of 'community over competition' in everything he did in his business and in his work with thousands of travel professionals over the years," said Suzanne Haire, the chair of the awards committee and the owner of TravelAgentSuz, LLC, in Fla. "We want to recognize advisors who're giving back like Will and following his example. Will instilled personal change in our industry – and we were lucky to have him as a friend and a colleague."
Joining Haire on the 2026 awards committee were these judges:
- Mario M. Lopez, Will's husband who serves as president of the Destination Weddings Expert agency and co-instructor in Destination Wedding University, a program that helps teach advisors how to grow their businesses in the destination wedding niche
- Eric Bowman, the editor in chief of TravelPulse and host of the TravelPulse Podcast
- Cheryl Rosen, the former editor in chief of Travel Market Report and executive editor of Business Travel News
"We're so proud of these advisors for 'Doing it Scared' and contributing so selflessly to the travel advisor community," Lopez noted. "They've found a way to give back to their peers, much like Will did, so we can all grow together."
Anyone in the North American travel industry may recommend worthy advisors for these annual awards (nominees do not need to be DWHSA members to qualify). Nominations for the 2027 honors will open this fall at WillMedinaSpiritAwards.com.
SOURCE: Destination Wedding & Honeymoon Specialists Association (DWHSA) press release
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