The Council of Hotel and Restaurant Trainers (CHART) selected New Orleans as the location to celebrate its 40th anniversary and 80th semi-annual conference to help support the city that has endured more than its share of disasters. Nearly 40 CHART members and guests came a day early to the conference to work in partnership with Habitat for Humanity. On July 24, the volunteers traveled to a residential neighborhood where they worked directly with a homeowner painting, digging fence posts, putting up a fence, and installing insulation.

“We weren’t just improving a home, we were improving the lives of a man and his family,” says Kate Shehan, immediate past president of CHART. “What made the event even more powerful was working side by side with the homeowner for eight hours in the southern heat on his family’s future home.”

“CHART comes to its host cities with an attitude of caring,” says Mike Amos, franchise consultant for Perkins & Marie Callender’s Inc. and president of CHART. “We want to give back to the local community, while creating bonds among members and providing them an example of volunteerism they can take back to their restaurants and hotels.”

Community service projects have been incorporated into CHART’s semi-annual conferences since 2002.

During 2010, CHART is celebrating 40 years of advancing hospitality training professionals and their organizations. The 80th Semi-Annual CHART Hospitality Training Conference was held at The Ritz-Carlton in New Orleans July 24-27.