Hampton Seniors' Trip to Jamaica Ruined, Along with a Friendship

By Bravetta Hassell
Black College Wire

How quickly a poor decision can ruin a friendship: The type of bond born in the gritty hallways of a freshman boys dormitory, in the transaction of a video game, in the discovery of common interests, or in the silent exchange of loose, dancing fists that express brotherhood.

Sunset Beach Resort and Spa Many students ended up sleeping four to five in a room to save money at what was touted as a "dream" destination.

That's the type of bond that Hampton University senior Josh Felder now finds irreparable after a close friend fell short of keeping a promise, mishandling thousands of dollars allocated to secure a successful Hampton University senior class trip.

Upon arriving in Jamaica on May 2, more than 200 students were told that their rooms had not been paid for and that Felder's friend Christopher Thomas, a party promoter and licensed travel agent known as Ryan, had paid only $15,000 of the $100,000 due the hotel.

The trip, as described on the social networking site Facebook, included a five-night stay at the Sunset Beach Resort and Spa in Montego Bay.

For many students, the five nights was cut down to one or two after Thomas announced that day that there was a problem with the credit card company he had used to pay for the rooms. If the students wanted to stay, they had to find the money.

In a meeting the next day, Thomas, a senior like Felder, told the Hampton group that the money was gone, Felder said; he had used it for "personal stuff" and other ventures.

Fury.

"Everyone was stunned," said senior Justin Gary. The hundreds and thousands of dollars students put forth now did not amount to very much. Some had been given the trip as an early graduation present, or they had worked two and three jobs to go.

No sooner had Thomas explained that the money was invested in a failed concert than Gary saw a student lunge toward Thomas.

"The plan backfired," said Gary, speaking of the concert. He chose to stay the full length of the trip — to May 7.

Felder said he was Thomas' roommate during the trip, though he saw Thomas only once, when he spent the night of May 2 in the room.

In the following days, students grappled with deciding whether to come out of their pockets and suitcases with more money and stay until the vacation's end, or pay $100 and make an early return to Hampton.

Felder left Montego Bay on May 4. He had arrived in Jamaica with $80 in his pockets and had been expecting $500 more to arrive later that week.

But the money most students came with was intended for gifts to take back home. "We pretty much knew something was wrong by the looks on people's faces," Felder remembered. He recalled stepping off the shuttle bus to classmates who were exasperated and filled with questions.

Besides the hotel and plane tickets, the cost of the trip included food, drinks and whatever else the resort had to offer, senior Tiffany Richardson said. The resort's Web site lists non-motorized sports and a mini-water park among its recreation options.

The accommodations ranged from $1,214 for a single room down to $905 per person for a triple room, according to the Christopher Ryan Travel Facebook group, where Thomas is listed as the agency's president and CEO.

By that Friday, senior Aneesha Perkins told WVEC-TV in Norfolk, Va., many of the students who stayed had slept four to five in a room to save money.

The trip, booked with Christopher Ryan Travel, had been in the works since mid-October, when Thomas announced the trip destination and a November deadline for students to pay their initial deposit.

One month before the trip, according to the Daily Press in Newport News, Va., Thomas had not paid the hotel its balance. With no way of contacting the more than 200 guests, the hotel staff prepared for their arrival.

"He could have told us," said Richardson, who left to return to Hampton that Friday. "Why let us go to another country and then we don't have rooms?"

In an e-mail to the newspaper in the days after a May 5 story about the misadventure, Thomas wrote: "I only wanted these students to enjoy their trip to Jamaica — I am willing to do whatever it takes to make things right again." However, Thomas did not say what happened to the money or whether the students would get their money back.

Thomas declined twice to comment on the matter.

Though the trip was not sponsored or organized by Hampton University, Yuri Rodgers Milligan, the director of university relations, said the school negotiated with the hotel to lower room rates for the remaining students.

"While the university does sympathize with the students, it will not take any active legal action against Thomas," Milligan said.

The last school-sanctioned senior trip took place in 2004, when students went to Mexico, Bennie G. McMorris, Hampton's vice president of student affairs, said through a spokeswoman. "School-sanctioned," he explained, meant that the university approved the contracted travel agent and sent a university staff member to accompany the group.

In 2005, the students voted on where they wanted go and went there without university funds or knowledge, he said. They went to Nassau, Bahamas.

The Class of 2006 followed in their footsteps, organizing the trip independently of the school. They traveled to the Sunset Beach Resort as well, but did not experience any of the problems that plagued this year's travelers, said Stephen Wesley, Hampton alumnus and 2005-2006 Student Government Association president.

The students were prepared far in advance, with confirmations from the hotel and airlines, and spent six days and five nights in "paradise," Wesley said.

While Thomas issued receipts for the money paid, Felder said he received little information about the trip outside of a flurry of e-mails from Thomas, with a later one containing a link to the resort's Web Site.

"I want my money back," he said. "I just hope that [Thomas] will learn better responsibility and take better care when dealing with other people's money."

Felder said he did not see Thomas at the May 13 graduation ceremonies. Rodgers said the university would not comment on Thomas' status because of privacy concerns.

Bravetta Hassell is a graduating senior majoring in print journalism at Hampton University. To comment, e-mail [email protected]

Posted May 14, 2007