People to People Uses Dead Student's Name as Recruiting Tool
By Lisa Wade McCormick
ConsumerAffairs.com
May 12, 2009
The parents of a Minnesota teenager who died on a 2007 People to People trip to Japan are outraged by the organization’s latest marketing tactics: Sheryl and Allen Hill learned People to People recently used their deceased son’s name...
Tyler Hill, 16, died in a Tokyo hospital on June 29, 2007, after People to People’s delegation leaders allegedly failed to get him the medical attention he requested.
Tyler had Type 1 diabetes and complex migraine headaches — conditions his parents disclosed before their son left on his overseas journey. People to People, an organization that touts its ties to former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, assured the Hills it had a solid safety record and a 24-hour response team that could handle any medical emergency.
That failed promise is at the heart of a wrongful death lawsuit...in Minnesota's Hennepin County District Court. The lawsuit alleges the organization and its delegation leaders refused to get Tyler the medical attention he requested after he and his group hiked Mount Fuji...
The postmark and address on the letter go to the for-profit Ambassadors Group, Inc., a publicly traded company (EPAX) based in Spokane, Washington...
In recent years, ConsumerAffairs.com has repeatedly exposed how People to People used misleading marketing tactics to recruit students for its expensive, overseas trips...duped their children into believing they were specially chosen for these trips, which cost an average of $5,000...
Some parents also say People to People refused to refund their money — even when they had to cancel their child’s trips for medical reasons...
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