May 17, 2012 Newsletter

 Rod Roberts gave an overview of the CU Sunrise website. It was decided that committee chairs would be responsible for updating events and activities pertaining to our club.

http://cusunriserotary.org

Try it with your log in information – it’s fun. Today I (Paul) learned we have a Congressional lobbyist in the club. Also one of us was an acquaintance of Richard Nixon and Bobby Kennedy, although I think you would work on Capitol Hill not on Capital Hill (unless, maybe it was for an episode of Sesame Street?). And another of us swam across the mighty Mississippi River because it was the thing to do at the time. I also reminded myself that I used to be good at horseshoes, so I updated that to includes bags.

 Announcement:

Oktay announced that Mary Hodson, Gary Olsen & Larry Johnson shared honors as CU Sunrise Rotarian of the month for April.

Bucket money for May and June will be for the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life.

 Program

Mary introduced Jan whom with her husband Denny gave a presentation on working the summer months at Yellowstone National Park. Jan was born and raised in Montana but moved to Illinois during high school. After attending college, marrying and raising a family she wanted to reconnect with her western roots. After retiring from a career at the University Jan found that you can work at Yellowstone National Park full time seasonally in the summer when the demand for employees increases. You get room and board, you get paid and you work 4 days and are off for 3 days and explore this most amazing of our National Parks.

Jan gave a running slide show of the park while entertaining us of her experiences.

Yellowstone National Park is the oldest of the National Parks (1872) and is over 2.2 million acres in size (roughly the equivalent of Champaign to Bloomington to Springfield to Champaign loop).

The National Park Service contracts with concessionaire’s to “run” the parks tourist activities during peak seasons. The concessionaire for Yellowstone is Zantera who will hire 2,300 temporary employees during the peak season.

Jan worked the front desk at the Old Faithful Inn which is the “crown jewel” of the park. It is over 100 years old and reservations must be made up to 15 months in advance.

In addition to the fabulous benefits of working in such a wondrous environment Jan also described an unexpected aspect of her two seasons there; an interesting profile and insight into the kind of people that are attracted to this kind of work. Two thirds of the workers are young people, and quite a few are international students. There are also workers that migrate to this type of employ because it’s a “good” financial decision in that room and board are serious considerations for them.

From bears to mice to everything in between (I learned that you don’t spray bear repellent at bears, you “paint” the air with it to create a foul smelling wall between you and the bear – and you do not use bear repellent to repel mice should you find one in you room or tent) Jan gave a most interesting program, especially for those seeking an unusual but fascinating way to “work” the summer months.

For more information check out www.yellowstonejobs.com.