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ShareLinda Mayhugh
Linda Mayhugh is the Chief Operating Officer and part owner of Advantage Travel, LLC in Lakeland, Florida. Advantage Travel is a membership based travel agency that owns and operates several travel clubs as well as offering sales and marketing opportunities throughout the timeshare, travel club, camping and vacation industry. Travel clubs owned and operated by Advantage Travel include:
Linda was born in Columbus, Indiana and raised by a single mother of six in the small town of French Lick, Indiana. She graduated from Springs Valley Community Schools in 1984 and Vincennes University in the fall of 1987 with an associate degree in Child Care Administration. Linda was employed by French Lick Springs Villas while attending college and though she thought owning her own day care center was her dream, she was thoroughly enjoying her work in the timeshare industry and remained working there after college instead of pursuing her day care center. In 1990 Linda moved to Naples, Florida to work as an Office Manager for American Marketing Group, Inc, a membership camping sales and marketing company. Continuing her work in the membership campground industry Linda then accepted an Administrative Assistant position with Adventure Outdoor Resorts, Inc. in 1993. Her current company, Advantage Travel was formed by one of the executives of Adventure Outdoor Resorts in 1995 and Linda was soon invited to become a partner where she has continued to grow as a strong independent professional in the vacation industry.
In the spring of 2009 Linda was elected as Vice President of C.A.R.E. (The Cooperative Association of Resort Exchangers) which is a non profit (volunteer) trade association for the vacation industry and is comprised of member companies that come together twice a year to network and facilitate the fulfillment of condominium vacations of thousands of travelers every year. She is the chairperson of the Travel Club Compliance Committee, co-chairperson of the Membership and Sponsorship Committees, and serves on several other committees for the C.A.R.E. organization.
Linda met Dean Hedstrom only a few short years before he passed away when she reconnected with a dear friend she had not seen since the early 1990's, Dean's wife Kris Gunn Hedstrom. Linda and Kris worked together at American Marketing Group in Naples, Florida in the early 90's and when that business closed they unfortunately lost contact for more 10 years. When they reconnected, Linda had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know Dean. Anyone who knew Dean loved Dean! Linda was no different, he immediately became her friend too and it felt as though he had been her friend as long as Kris had been. When Melanoma took Dean's life and Kris formed the Dean Hedstrom Foundation for Melanoma Awareness ... Linda wanted to be involved. After volunteering with the foundation during its first year she was asked to join the board of directors in 2010 and she graciously accepted. Linda has personally realized the importance of this foundations mission when she herself had her first routine skin check shortly after Dean's death. She had a mole removed and soon found out that it contained cells that if left undetected and removed, very well could have led to skin cancer and / or melanoma. This discovery has driven Linda to be more aware personally, remind others to be more aware and most of all created a personal passion to support the Dean Hedstrom Foundation in anyway that she can.
