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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Marc Belanger, Director of Communications
Up with People International Alumni Association
617-470-7508

‘Up with People’ Alumni Return to Tucson

Tucson, AZ (July 6, 2011) – The Up with People International Alumni Association (UWPIAA) is hosting an alumni reunion at the JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort, July 14-17. The reunion is expected to bring 600 alumni and their families to Tucson from 18 different countries. Up with People has celebrated its annual reunion in Tucson for nearly 20 years.

Tucson remains a special place to thousands of Up with People alumni, it is where they lived during their 4-week staging and orientation prior to their year of international performance and community service.  For nearly 20 years, thousands of Tucson families were hosts to Up with People students from around the world, many of whom still stay in touch with each other. Today alumni look forward to their reunion not only to see their “castmates”, but to see Tucson and their host families as well.

Tucson has been the location for the majority of UWPIAA reunions since the mid 1980s. Along with Up with People’s longtime ties to the city, founder J. Blanton Belk and his wife, Betty, still call the Old Pueblo home, as do songwriters Ralph Colwell and Herb Allen among hundreds of other alumni.

At this year’s reunion, author, actor, singer and songwriter Tom Sullivan will be honored with the Up with People Founder’s Award. Sullivan’s accomplishments are many, but he may be best known as one of only 35 people who have sung the National Anthem at the Super Bowl as part of an Up with People’s halftime performance. Sullivan served on the Up with People board of directors and contributed to the development of several songs that were performed in Up with People shows over the years. Sullivan will be recognized at the reunion opening session on Friday, July 15, which will also be broadcast live on the Internet for the first time.

In the spirit of giving, Up with People alumni and their children will be partnering with the Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona-Sahauro in a community service project with a local non-profit organization, Ben’s Bells. The project will take place from 11- 4pm on Thursday July 14 in the San Pedro Room. Jeannette Mare, the Founder/Executive Director, will meet with the group at 1:30pm to answer questions and tell her story. More information about Ben’s Bells available at www.BensBells.org.

A highlight of the reunion is on Saturday evening, July 16, when alumni perform three select songs from each Up with People show. A select number of tickets to this event will be available at the door of the J.W Marriott Starr Pass Convention for $25 per person.

More information on reunion and the UWPIAA can be found at www.uwpiaa.org. For more information about Up with People, visit www.upwithpeople.org. More information about Tom Sullivan is available at www.SullivanLive.com. The Up with People Alumni Association would like to thank the Metropolitan Tucson Convention and Visitors Bureau for supporting its annual reunion for many years. More information on the visitors bureau available at www.visittucson.org/.

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