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Always Keep A Bag Packed Sharing Stories Of Travel With Joy Minns

photo by provided Joy & Jeff Minns love just about everything in Hawaii!

photo by provided This Tracoscan Castle dates back to the 13th Century

photo by provided Surfing with a broken foot.

photo by provided Airplane bound for Spain.

photo by provided

Tuesday April 5, 2016

By Cookie Steponaitis

Joy Minns arrived in Addison County in the summer of 1974 and accepted the position of the German teacher at the high school. Minns had not traveled much before coming to the Champlain Valley and discovered that many of her students had not travelled as well. Some of them had never even been over the bridge into New York State. Minns wanted to change that and bravely signed up for a trip for herself and twenty-five of her students for the Amish County. Traveling on a school bus and reaching out to the Amish Community for assistance in planning the adventure, Minns and the kids stayed on Amish farms and her students helped with chores. The adventure resulted in the passion for travel that continues to this day. Minns got the travel bug and wanted her students to experience and be a part of the community and culture. The Minns era of travel had just begun.
    It was early in 1976 when Minns was approached by the National Association of German Students who were seeking to organize an exchange with a few organized trips in school line ups at the time. Minns moved forward and arrived in Germany to find herself with no tour guide, a trip for emergency surgery when a girl’s appendix ruptured and a student who lost his traveler’s checks even before they got off the plane.  Undaunted and learning every time she went, Minns continued to travel overseas with students every other year until 1987. “The door opened one day and in walked Heinz Hester a German teacher who wanted to start a school exchange program with a Vermont school,” grinned Minns. “Persistent and convincing, Heinz wanted us to have the students stay with German host families, attend school and be overseas for three weeks. In addition on the opposite year, his students would come to Vermont and stay with our families. Of course I said ‘no’,” Minns chuckles and added that not only did she end up getting convinced but the German Trips became the German Exchange that year and this April will be the 28th year a school group from VUHS who will make the trip to Bochum, Germany.
    Minns met with teachers from Ukraine overseas and went on to take VUHS students to Ukraine and later Russia with colleague Pamela Taylor. Interspersed  in the off years of the German exchange found Minns and teens headed to London, Paris, Rome, Florence and other European destinations, where memorable moments of missing trains, getting lost and meeting the most amazing people are all a part of the memories of Minns and the teens.  When Minns retired from public school teaching in 2007 she had escorted over 600 Addison County teens on German and European odysseys with some families even sending the second generation. While most people would have hung up their travel bags then, it seems Minns went into overdrive.
    A self-proclaimed travel enthusiast for Hawaii, Minns has been there nine times since 2007. Whether it is stories of surfing lessons with a broken foot, Hula dancing or finding all of the off the beaten path possibilities, both Joy and Jeff Minns love Maui. “It is just so beautiful and peaceful there,” explains the Minns. “It really just provides a wonderful balance of hospitality, beauty and the ability to set your own agenda.” Ironically, it was Minns’s searching for her own genealogy that set her in motion on another series of European adventures. “My mother was a foster child and my father was a first generation American,” explained Minns. “So, I really didn’t know either side of my family. With research through the Daughters of the Revolution and traipsing through graveyards all over America, I began to piece together my roots.” The piecing of names and dates led to trips to Croatia, Hungary and Austria. Fluent enough in Hungarian, Croatian and Russian to find her way around, Minns actually located cousins and family members in several towns and cities. Due to return overseas again this summer, Minns chuckles and finds humor that on most trips she is stopped by tourists and asked for directions. “My daughter tells me I could get lost in my own house,” adds Minns.
    Minns has her bucket list of Alaska, Australia and summer plans for a Milwaukee Brewers Game with her son and cannot imagine people not wanting to catch the travel bug. “Don’t stay on the tourist path,” concluded Minns. “Travel is about the people, moments and adventures you have off the beaten path.” And that certainly is something Minns would know, for her trips are always adventures and she could fill a book with stories of the guards at Lenin’s Tomb, airplane rides from Hades, lost luggage, emergencies and blessings on the same trip. “I usually do three weeks in Europe with just a carry on,” explains Minns.
    Spring is bursting forth and April is hailed as World Travel Month and Minns suggests you start small with road trips and expand but never, ever stop traveling. On a recent trip to Slovenia her passport was rejected because it was so full and thick. As Minns eavesdropped on the two police and customs officials who reasoned it out this way, “It must be ok,” they concluded. “ It has lots of stamps in it.” The Valley Voice salutes Joy Minns and all those who are smitten by the travel bug and always have a bag packed and are ready for the next adventure to begin.

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