Dave Frey (left) backpacking with son Jesse The director of WhaleCoast Alaska is Dave Frey, a 27-year resident of Alaska. Dave came to Alaska in the summer of 1981 with a backpack and a free spirit. He has never left, and his free spirit remains alive. Dave was a tour bus driver/guide in Denali National Park for his first three years in the state. He also worked 7 years as a driver/guide for Tour Alaska and Princess Tours. He started a family and a career in counseling and youth development, while maintaining his connection to tourism. Dave has worked as a step-on guide in Fairbanks, and he has been the Fairbanks coordinator for the WhaleCoast Alaska tours for 7 years. During the non-summer months he is a Drug Prevention Specialist for the Fairbanks School District.

Lily Walton with “Lucy.”

Assisting on the 2008 tour is Dave’s daughter Lily Walton, a lifelong Alaskan who loves to travel. She is currently a Livestock Volunteer with Heifer International, a hunger awareness and relief organization. Lily’s varied interests include competitive cross country running and skiing, jewelry making, pottery, and nurturing her many long distance friendships. WhaleCoast Alaska has always had two guides for each tour group, an unusual policy with travel programs. The purpose is to provide more personal service, and to be sure that one guide is always available to assist individuals with any concerns while the other is leading the group program. Both Dave and Lily are extremely excited about this summer’s tour!!!

In 1972, Rev. Dick Weston-Jones incorporated a company, originally called “wUUrld” to provide a foundation for Unitarian Universalist programs he had begun offering to UUs in 1967 in the towns and villages of Mexico. The purpose of those "La Vida Mexicana" summer programs was to introduce North Americans to the values and culture of a Third World people. The first programs were in a Baja California village where families and youth from his Whittier congregation had inter-cultural contacts, and the Unitarian Service Committee had sponsored a medical project in the 1950s. He later moved his program to other parts of Mexico, bringing over 500 UUs from the U.S. and Canada in small working groups to Mexican villages. The program became an affiliate organization of the UUA and programs continued for several years until the Mexican economy collapsed in the late 70s, making it too difficult to continue operating. Affiliate status with the UUA lapsed in the 1980’s when WhaleCoast did not operate any programs for a decade.

Rev. Weston-Jones worked with his Ventura, California church to revive WhaleCoast in 1992. Their first offerings brought UU guests to the central Pacific coast of California to watch the endangered California gray whales. WhaleCoast expanded to take guests to the gray whale calving lagoons in Baja California Sur, Mexico and up the gray whale migratory route to Alaska in 1995. Rev. Weston-Jones and his wife Mary retired from touring after the summer of 2007, but he is assisting Dave with the continuation of the WhaleCoast Alaska tradition.