International Impact | Pam Broering & Rick Funk

What makes Chamber travel more than just a vacation? In this episode of Impact: The Chamber Podcast, we sit down with Pam Broering of Cruise Adventures and Chamber traveler Rick Funk while filming on location in Greece during our 2026 Chamber Trip.

We discuss the value of Chamber travel, the lasting relationships formed throughout the journey, and how experiences like these help strengthen both personal and professional connections back home. The conversation also explores the importance of experiencing different cultures, gaining new perspectives, and how traveling together creates opportunities for meaningful networking and lifelong friendships.

From exploring Greece to building stronger connections within the Wayne County community, this episode highlights the lasting impact of traveling together. Tune in to hear firsthand about the friendships, business relationships, and unforgettable experiences that make Chamber travel so unique.

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Learn more about the Chamber: https://www.wcareachamber.org/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Hi everyone, welcome to the Chamber Podcast on location in the Aegean Sea on our Chamber travel trip just outside of Rhodes, Greece, and we are having a fabulous time. We wanted to try to not rub it in too much, but make sure you had an opportunity to hear what's going on here and how you can join us in the future. So with us today, we're so happy to have some of our co-travelers, Rick Funk with Wilco Custom Electronics, and Pam Broring with Cruise Adventure, and of course, by sidekick here, Lynette Davis, Director of Events at the Chamber. And I'm directing the events here. That's right. Absolutely. And doing a fabulous job. That's right. So we have been doing this now for four years, and Rick, you and your wife came with us on the first trip to Italy. And tell us a little bit about that. What made you decide you wanted to travel with the chamber?

SPEAKER_00 1:17

Well, Nancy and I have always talked about traveling, but if you're not an experienced traveler and you and you would like to do something, it's kind of hard to wrap your head around all the ins and outs of you know, where do you go, how do you do it, and all this kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_04 1:35

How do you get there? How do you get there? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

And so when the chamber announced that they were going to take the trip to Italy, it's like that's one area that we'd always wanted to go, and somebody else was doing the planning, and the pricing was reasonable, we felt, and and so it's like, well, you know, we need to grab this opportunity to go.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Great. We had such a good time that first year. Um, every year, it's been a little bit different of an experience every single year. Um, Pam, you joined in the fun starting year two, and you've been with us year after year. Um, we've been happy to kind of take that the learning lessons from the first year and and start talking about okay, how can we benefit a local business instead of doing this elsewhere? So we came to you and said, hey, can we work together?

SPEAKER_02 2:32

Certainly, certainly. And so cruise adventure and travel has been in Wayne County for 38 years, so we are in your backyard. Um, you don't have to worry about reaching out to somebody that's far away to help do your planning. Um, with the chamber, we went to Ireland, London, and Scotland, and then we did an alma waterways cruise that we did five countries, and this year we're visiting many places in the Mediterranean, um, sailing from Greece to Barcelona. Should we tell about next year or wait?

SPEAKER_01 3:07

Oh, let's save it for the end.

SPEAKER_02 3:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

A little suspense. You have to stay tuned so you can hear what's coming up. But Rick, I want to come back to you because you've now traveled with us multiple times. What was it after that first year that made you think this is something that's meaningful for continuing to join again?

SPEAKER_00 3:35

Okay, I'm gonna try not to get too emotional. Um what you all know is that that first year we were so looking forward to going to Italy. And uh sometimes my work in in well involved uh past tense uh getting up on a ladder and climbing up on a roof. And two weeks before we were set to depart, I fell from a ladder, broke my ankle in two places, and so I was committed to going on this trip. Um I you know, one way or the other, and the doctor gave me approval as long as I didn't put my foot on the ground. He said, okay, you know, go for it. Um what I didn't realize was the support that I was gonna get from all those other people on the on the trip. You know, the the guys that uh that helped me uh get down those steep inclines and uh you know pick me up. I fell once, just once. It hurt more my pride than it hurt anything else, you know. But you know, people were there to to to help me along the way, and and just uh just being able, you know, we we've lived in Wayne County for years, but there were probably 25-30 people in this group that we had not met before and we didn't have a relationship. And now when we come back home and we see them in the grocery store or whatever, you know, we have that bond. And so that was really special. And and when Ireland came along, it's like, oh Guinness, are you kidding me? Right.

SPEAKER_03 5:08

That was a very cool tour of the factory.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

That was a cool tour.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

So yeah, yeah, that was we've kind of we've kind of developed every year a family. That's that's what I feel like with all of you. It's been a family, and we um we support each other, we get back, and and we're able to talk more meaningfully about other businesses and other just other community members, neighbors, friends?

SPEAKER_04 5:37

Able to connect businesses to businesses with people who are on the truth.

SPEAKER_01 5:42

Yes. So um, what has the experience been like, Pam, with Cruise Adventure partnering with us, and what role do you play, and how do you support individuals and businesses as they want to join us for a journey?

SPEAKER_02 6:03

So, with any trip that I have planned over the past 38 years, it is you become friends with these people. So it's just not a business relationship of planning your trip. We have been very fortunate to travel many, many places and just become close friends with our travelers. As Rick was saying, you bond, you learn more about the ins and outs of their life, and and you just become friends, and you might decide to go out to dinner back in Wayne County, even though you've been across the world with those folks. Um, so it's been a I think a great experience for everyone involved.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

Agreed. It's been good. I know that first year a lot of the even though we had a company we were working with from a local standpoint, if people had questions, they were coming to you.

SPEAKER_04 6:52

You're not a travel agent. You're not a travel.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

That's not what we signed up for, and really not what we wanted to. We don't want to be travel agents. We would rather work with an experienced travel agent and we appreciate it.

SPEAKER_03 7:04

It's been wonderful to work with Pam.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

Well, and we're right there on Main Street, so people can walk in the door or give us a call whenever.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

So, yes, it's been convenient.

unknown 7:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

So you've seen a different side of travel um from the inside. How have you seen? I mean, you started to talk about it just a little bit, but the residual benefits after we come back home. It's not just us taking a taking a fun vacation together. What's it like when we come back home? And how do you see Wayne County benefiting from that?

SPEAKER_04 7:42

Well, we are the people are connecting and going and eating in um our local restaurants back in Wayne County. We do have group dinners where I call everybody, once you've traveled with us, you're in the Chamber Travel Club. I call it, you know, it's a club. We're getting membership cards. Um travel buddies, but travel buddies, you know, but we do we have dinners at our local Wayne County restaurants. Um, so you know, there's a local economic benefit to it. Um, we're making meaningful connections with Chamber and putting Chamber members together and connecting them so they're like, I didn't know your business could do this, and so now they're using them for something to benefit their business. Right. Um, also chamber related, we're making a lot of connections with um the work-based learning.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

Right.

SPEAKER_04 8:28

That is is becoming you know a bigger and bigger thing in Indiana, and all of our students having to have internships, and now we are connecting even you know, right now this week, um, making connections with I think you talked about maybe needing an intern.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

Rick, I think uh you you should think about getting an intern see even right now. We're working.

SPEAKER_04 8:52

We're working it's constant things and and coming back and just so many meaningful connections when we get back.

SPEAKER_01 8:58

It is, and I, you know, also I we've had a chance a little bit to be able to talk to our members about learn a little more about the needs of individual businesses and where their where their pain points might be and how the chamber can support them if that's making a connection to someone else, or maybe we have a resource that they just aren't aware of. So the more people we can get being aware of what's going on, I think the more that word of mouth is going to spread locally to be able to support our community. Lastly, I know we were talking a little bit earlier about, you know, just how do we how do we become more culturally aware, be a welcoming community, and understand what it's like when people move in from the outside, um, really feeling like Richmond or Wayne County or you know, one of the towns can really be home and how do we make them feel at home? And for me, that's a big piece of it because we want rich Richmond, Centerville, Fountain City, Cambridge City, Hagerstown. We want our community to grow in population and in prosperity, and the only way we're gonna do that is when we work together. So well, we're gonna wrap up real quick because we have a party to get to, but that said, we're all dressed very nicely. So come tell us where we're coming next year.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

Come and join us in Alaska, June 27th. We're headed to Fairbanks for a land cruise tour that we will go from Fairbanks down to Denali National Park and go back in the park to see the big five. We'll head on down to Anchorage and to Seward. So we'll have five nights on land. And if your time away is not allowing you to be gone that long, then you can come on July 2nd and join us on the Anthem of the Seas Royal Caribbean ship, and we will sail from Seward down to Juneau and Skagway and Icy Strait Point coming home on July the 9th. So come with us. Wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

It's gonna be so much fun. We hope you join us. I'm not a cold weather girl. We're going in the summer, and it's gonna be phenomenal. Lynette, you have a list. Tell everyone where they can find it.

SPEAKER_04 11:29

Well, before I get to the list, I do want to mention we have that information about the trip on our chamber website. Um, if you go to our website, it's under the events tab, uh, Chamber Trip 2027. So lots of information about all the great things that would be part of the chamber trip to Alaska. Um, Lynette's list, there are a few things coming up with the chamber. We are a little slower in the summer, um, but we will pop up a few um graphics on what's coming up here in the next couple of weeks with the chamber once we return.

SPEAKER_01 11:59

That's right. Thank you for listening, as always. If you've enjoyed our podcast, we hope you'll like it, you'll share it, you'll follow us, and of course, anytime that you want to be involved in something we're doing, please reach out, call our office, visit our website, send us an email. We'd love to hear from you and um work with you. So have a great day. Enjoy your time. I know we'll enjoy ours.

SPEAKER_02 12:27

Goodbye.