Earth Day 2009

April 19th, 2009
Last hatchling from a Bucuti nest

Last hatchling from a Bucuti nest

For those of you who have been our guests in the past, you have seen how strong our company culture is with regard to the importance of sustainable practices.  Within our company and through stewardship, we do our utmost to promote awareness of our environment and how to protect it.   Therefore as you can imagine, Earth Day is a big day for us.  Below are our April 22, 2009 Earth Day activities.  We hope you will participate if you will be our guest this week!

8.30am: Beach Clean up

Bucuti’s owner, Ewald Biemans is the founder of the Aruba “Sponsor A Mile” program.  Once a month our Bucuti associates gather in the morning and beginning at our resort on the beach, they head north, armed with garbage bags and clean up our mile of road and beach area.  When we first started the sponsor a mile, our guests consistently expressed interest to join and ultimately we decided to inform them when it was happening, with an open invitation to participate.  Some days our guests out-number our associates and we are so proud to have such socially conscience guests!  For Earthday this year, let our concierge team know if you wish to join our beach clean up before 5pm April 21st.  They will equip you with a free Bucuti Beach Resort T-shirt.  concierge@bucuti.com

9am: Nature Sensitive Hike

Rangers from the Arikok National Park will take Bucuti guests on a special hiking tour in our beautiful park.  Guests will see a variety of indiginous life…cacti, lizards, birds, wild donkeys and wild goats and more… The friendly and professional rangers will explain all about our native flora and fauna as well as interesting information on our country’s history.

The tour is from 9am till 12 pm. US $ 25 per person. Transportation and refreshments are included. Space is limited.  Please sign up with the concierge; concierge@bucuti.com to reserve a spot.

11:30am: Hotel Tour by Bucuti’s Green Team Members

Over the past decade, Bucuti has won a multitude of environmental awards and accolades for our extensive efforts to protect the environment.  We invite you to go with our Green Team Members behind the scenes, into the ‘back of the house’ as we call it,  and learn about Bucuti’s extensive infrastructure designed to keep you, our associates and the environment safe. The Tour starts at 11.30am in our main Bucuti lobby. Please sign up by April 21st at our concierge desk.

1pm: Turtle Lecture by Yvonne van der Putten-Brinkman

Mrs. Yvonne van der Putten-Brinkman from the Turtugaruba foundation was invited by the management and associates of Bucuti for our annual update and education about our local sea turtles. These gentle giant turtles nest on Bucuti’s and other Aruban beaches at this time of the year and we conduct a refresher course for our associates to protect and care for the Turtles properly when they appear on our beach to further future generations.  Please join us! We welcome you on this day from 1pm – 2pm in the Tara Lounge.

3pm: Recycled Crafts Contest at the Pirates’ Nest.

Join us in the Pirates’ Nest Restaurant for our recycled crafts exhibition and contest with our associates. Associates will show off their art pieces created from recycled materials. The recycled crafts contest will start at 3pm and we need your help to be a judge!  You can participation by voting for your favorite recycled craft.  Winning selections will be entered in the 8th Annual Island-wide Recycling competition at the Library in Oranjestad held on Monday the 4th of May.

3pm: Meet owner Ewald Biemans at the Pirates’ Nest during our Recycle Contest

Ewald Biemans is known as the island’s foremost tourism industry activist for Environmental protection over the past 3 decades. Meet him at the Pirates’ Nest after the recycling contest to ask questions about how you can protect the environment at home by reducing, reusing and recycling.

6pm - 10.30pm: The Pirates’ Nest restaurant will offer a special menu featuring Aruban Cuisine

Join the Pirates’ Nest tonight for an authentic Aruban cultural experience. The Chef has created a special Aruban traditional menu for you to taste the flavors of Aruba. Reservations are required, please see our concierge team for your reservation.

The price of the Aruban menu is $34.95 p.p. inclusive of service charge and government taxes.

8pm: Movie on the beach, underthe stars:  The Inconvenient Truth

The Inconvenient Truthis Al Gore’s movie which offers a passionate and inspirational look at one man’s fervent crusade to halt global warming’s deadly progress in its tracks by exposing the myths and misconceptions that surround it.  It is a controversial movie, whether you agree or not, we hope to inspire discussion and concern for the subject.

Write and tell us what you think of our Earth Day program.  We appreciate your feedback!

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Joy and Inspiration

April 3rd, 2009
Rafael enjoys a dance at the company Christmas party 2008

Rafael enjoys a dance at the company Christmas party 2008

If you were a guest at our resort you may have passed a smiling Rafael Tromp in the hallway at one time or another.
 
Rafael’s strength and stamina have been invaluable to our housekeeping department as he lifted and carted piles of linens to and from the laundry or helped to bring supplies to the room attendants.   Rafael kept our floors and windows sparkling clean and assisted the department anywhere and everywhere.
   
I met Rafael 16 years ago when Ewald introduced me to him as a new member of our team at Bucuti.   A local foundation called Centro Man na Obra  had contacted him to inquire if we needed any help because of a long standing friendship he had developed with the organization.  http://www.svgaruba.info/obra.html
 
Ewald successfully integrated members of Centro Man na Obra into his organizations throughout the years and we all watched them thrive under the protective care of the entire team.
    
I once pondered the thought of Rafael and the term ‘mentally challenged’ and wondered what the world would have been like if everyone were as challenged as Rafael… because his challenges seemed to have left him without the ability to be unkind and I doubt if he knew what ‘hate’ was.   His world seemed full of love and laughter, kindness and smiles.  It was a pleasure to see Rafael each day and receive the warm and fuzzy expression on his face as he enthusiastically belted out a good morning.
   
Tragically and quite unexpectedly, we lost Rafael this week.
 
Through the sadness and grief of our entire team, I believe I can speak everyone’s behalf when I say that Rafael inspired us to live to our potential as he did, and not to squander our gifts or take them for granted.  
He will live in our hearts, memories and in Bucuti’s history always. 

Nashette Wouters, Bucuti’s Wedding Planner

March 7th, 2009
Bucuti's Wedding Planner, Nashette Wouters

Bucuti

You may have already seen Nashette’s photo in advertisements within the New York Subway system, on aruba.com, on a billboard in a major US City, or maybe in the Real Simple Magazine, Islands, Bridal Guide, amongst many others.   

Nashette Wouters is Bucuti’s Wedding Planner and  local celebrity since her lovely face was tapped for the national advertising campaign called “90,000 Friends“.    Since the campaign was launched early this year, the modest Nashette has been inundated by calls from Brides, Grooms and families of past weddings she planned with excitement over the sightings of Nashette in advertisements seen in media all over the USA. 

Nashette is Aruba’s only USA certified and trained Wedding planner and over the past three years she has caringly planned and managed over 100 weddings for couples from around the world.  

We are very proud to have Nashette on our team and invite you to contact her (weddings@bucuti.com) if you are thinking of getting engaged, marrying or renewing your wedding vows at Bucuti, again awarded the TripAdvisors “Traveler’s Choice Award” for one of the top 10 most romantic resorts in the world!

Aruba is a wonderful place for romance and our ‘Dream Beach of the World’ is the ultimate location.  For more information about Bucuti Engagements and Weddings, visit Nashette’s website:  http://www.bucuti.com/en/weddings/