My Volunteer Vacation
A Visit to My Father’s Homeland
of Crete, Greece
LYNN (ELENI PAITAKES) LOTKOWICTZ
1. Lynn Lotkowictz
sits with the family
that owns and runs
Hotel Handakas,
where volunteers stay.
Lynn says they are
wonderful people who
treated her like family.
2. This is the beautiful beach two blocks
from Hotel Handakas.
1
A
granddaughter of one of my mother’s dearest friends
reached out to me in early October while doing some
genealogy research. She was trying to find out more about
family and her Greek heritage and sent me some old photos that brought back great memories about a culture and
people I hadn’t thought about in a long time. It was the
perfect start to my first attempt at a volunteer vacation.
Instead of relaxing on a beach or sightseeing in Athens, I signed up for a two-week stint helping young students learn English in Crete, a program sponsored by
Global Volunteers. Since 1984, Global Volunteers (globalvolunteers.org) has been offering a variety of programs in 19 countries, but of course for me the Crete
program had a strong personal appeal.
A little background: My father and his family left
Crete in 1917, traveling from Athens on the ship Patris
for the 10 to 12-week Atlantic crossing to New York’s
Ellis Island. Like immigrants from across Europe, his
family was poor and was seeking a better life in the U.S.
My father was seven years old at the time.
His family settled in New Jersey and he grew up realizing the American dream, had four children, an amazing wife
and great success in business with “The Spinning Wheel
Diner & C