Wendy Helfenbaum

When a man decides he wants a new truck, not much can stand in his way. Just ask Ted Frett. In the summer of 2006, the West Deptford, New Jersey high school principal had decided to trade in his beloved 1997 Ford F-150 for the new 2007 model when he began experiencing worrisome health symptoms.
Here's why Ted calls his new truck 'Leap of Faith'...

The Zoar Volunteer Fire Department—which today has 20 members and has served Ohio’s historic Zoar Village since 1850—calls itself the ‘Ford Department.’ For nearly a century, Ford vehicles have had a home in their firehouse, helping to save lives day in and day out.

Jeffrey Louis’s Mustang fever ignited at age 4. That’s when he and his father, Raymond, picked up the family’s new metallic lime-green 1967 Mustang.
“My dad would never buy a car off the lot; he always special-ordered directly from Ford,” says Jeffrey, an automotive pricing analyst. “In those days, they’d put your name on the car and tag it on the assembly line. He wanted his car specially made for him.”

Name badges are usually an attendee’s first interaction with your event and an important way to promote networking. Badges can help brand your company, provide sponsorship opportunities and help planners wanting to go paperless. Here’s how to up your nametag game.

Award-winning Vancouver designer Juli Hodgson creates an elegant yet playful all-white modern beach house for her family.

From its thriving cultural scene with 100+ world-class festivals, to its gastronomic delights and legendary nightlife, Montreal is an easy sell. An international hub with easy access to 130 destinations also made it the right choice for the 2018 International Association of Business Communicators’ World Congress.

“We wanted to try something different, and Montreal is a fabulous cosmopolitan city; it was a huge draw for us," says Natasha Nicholson, IABC’s San Francisco-based Content Director.

It’s one thing to stage a large event in a giant convention center where nobody moves for four days. It’s quite another when an entire city becomes your venue, with hundreds or thousands of attendees housed in various anchor hotels meet in one or more locations, and branch out for dining, off-site activities and special programs. Here’s how four destinations are setting the gold standard to accommodate citywides.

Every week, a small group of highly skilled professionals meets to exchange ideas and strategies to ensure that all students are mentally, physically and emotionally healthy. The Integrated Wellness team provides guidance, support and action plans that address all aspects of student life.

Don’t want your child’s failure to plan to become a family emergency on vacation? Teach them a super-important life lesson: how to pack like a pro for any getaway, whether it’s a weekend at grandma’s or a 12-day cruise. But don’t just ask them to pack their bags and then walk away; the last thing you need on a family vacation is to open your daughter’s bag and see a pile of crafts, two mismatched socks and a princess costume. Help the kids get ready for your next trip without having to do it all yourself.

Perched on the edge of the scuba diving boat about half an hour off the Bermuda shore, I wobbled in my floppy fins, struggling to keep my balance with about 60 pounds of underwater equipment strapped to my back. I was also determined to keep down my breakfast.

“Go ahead! Just step in!” yelled the instructor. My tween son had already joined the group in the water. Everyone watched, waiting for me to take the plunge. I told myself that my son and I would share this incredible memory of discovering a new sport together. If only I could remember to breathe.

As we careen at warp speed toward Thanksgiving, Christmas, and all of the joyous (read: stressful) festivities in between, you might be tempted to take your home off the market—or hold off on listing it—until after the new year. After all, you’re swamped with cooking, shopping, and decorating, and the last thing you need is a bunch of potential buyers traipsing through your house, right?
Wrong,..

A successful marathon combines a winning destination, a large number of racers and spectators, and, increasingly, a lively event expo. Open to the public and often attracting tens of thousands of attendees, event expos bring organizations and businesses into the marathon community, while boosting the event’s profile and its bottom line. Here’s how two major events did it right.

Culinary photographer Virginie Gosselin renders beautiful, haunting images from sculptural displays of food.

If your smile is less than dazzling, brace yourself: Adult orthodontics is a hot trend. Today’s materials are lighter, cheaper and more effective than the ‘metal mouth’ options we grew up with. The number of adults choosing to straighten their teeth and improve their smile has increased by 40 percent in the past two decades, according to the American Association of Orthodontists (AAO).

Ah, the joys of owning a vacation home—a private getaway where you can kick back, relax, and entertain guests. But what about guests of the creepy, crawly, or furry variety?
Yes, I’m talking about nature’s guests, the ones that don’t leave at the end of a weekend.
Fall is when many pests arrange their timeshare lodging for the cooler months—think raccoons looking for somewhere toasty to have their babies, or squirrels deciding your chimney is the one they’d like to get stuck in.