The Weather Board August 28, 2008

With schools everywhere starting up again, activity at the YMCA and in Sweet Memorial has started to slow down. We have lost almost all of our seasonal staff, and there are nowhere near as many visitors as there were during the other summer months. Yesterday for example, I think I helped out maybe 20 guests during my eight hour shift. I was scheduled to run four family programs, but I only had guests signed up for two of them. To keep myself from going crazy, I have found lots of odd jobs to keep me busy, like re-fletching broken arrows, ripping sheets for animal detective headbands, restocking the trail tags, and even cutting out fins for our bottle rocket program. By the way, I should mention now that I hold the Sweet Memorial record for fitting the most fins on one poster board–44. Not an easy task, believe me!

One job I have recently found–actually look forward to doing–is updating the weather board. Earlier this summer, some of my coworkers started illustrating the weather forecast on our giant white board. Our boss, Gail, praised us for doing this, saying our creative and humorous interpretations of the weather always put smiles on the guests’ faces. Once most of the staff who did this job left, I decided to keep the tradition going. Pictured below are just a few of my forecasts (the ones I remembered to take pictures of).

As you can see, I like to draw the weather as a caricature–the sun always seems to be a cocky, overconfident subject, and the clouds are mischievous. It’s always fun to watch guests look up at the weather board and watch their reactions. Usually, their face starts solemn, and then a grin or a smile slowly creeps up. A few guests have even told me that they think I’m a talented artist. I’m proud to now be carrying the weather board torch, and plan to continue this summer 2008 staff tradition thoughout the rest of my stay at the YMCA.

Meet the Sweeties! July 24, 2008

The other day, the entire Sweet Memorial Staff got organized and decided to take a staff photo before all of us start leaving. There were so many cameras, that by the end of the line, people just started making funny faces. That’s ok, because I think it shows off more personality. I’d like to introduce you to the “sweeties”, as we like to call ourselves.

TOP ROW (from left to right)

Keith–Our newest staff member. This is his first season volunteering with his wife at the YMCA, but he has vacationed at EPC for numerous summers with his family. His daughter actually worked at EPC for two seasons in Sweet Memorial. He’s recently retired from his job as a newspaper editor where he worked for over 30 years.

Jessie–One of our “senior staff”. This year, Jessie received her five year pin for working 5 years at the YMCA. During the non-summer season, Jessie works in the day care. Both Jessie and I share a love of nerdy things like computers and comic book movies, and we have a lot of fun hanging out together in and out of work. Jessie graduated from Purdue and is from Indiana.

Emily–The customer service queen. Emily attends College of the Ozarks in Michigan and is majoring in Health and Wellness. She is originally from Branson, Missouri. She has a lot of customer service experience, because back home, she works at Dolly Parton’s Roundup Rodeo as a guest relations manager.

Robbie–The other intern. Robbie is from Chicago and is also majoring in Recreation and Parks Management. This is his third summer at EPC, and last year he was an intern in the L.T. program. He is very religious, and comes from a large family. Robbie, as you can see from his picture, can be a goofball.

Larissa–The flatlander. She hails from a small farming town in Kansas, and knows more about farming than anyone I have ever met. Larissa is the most enthusiatic hiker I know here at the YMCA and is trying to go on as many hikes as possible before she goes back home to Kansas. Larissa is also one of the most considerate people in Sweet and always tries to include others in social events and activities. She’s a great friend.

Caroline–The girl with the cute accent. This sweetie is from Minnesota and just recently graduated with a degree in Communication. She interested in going back to school to study a newly developing field called “health communication”, which I think is very interesting. She is really fun to hike with and a great conversationalist.

Ian–The baby of the family. Ian just turned 19 last month and is the youngest member on staff. Ian loves to run and does all of the hardest hikes in park. I also envy him because he has a bottomless stomach and can eat anything without gaining an ounce. Great sense of humor, especially with his childhood partner in crime, Matt, who is also on the sweet staff. He is from Maryland.

MIDDLE ROW (from left to right)

Rojean–The glue that holds us together! Rojean has been working at EPC for 17 years and will be retiring this October. She is one of 3 year round staff in the department. Rojean is one of a kind because she is very organized and type A when it comes to her work, but is also very personable and friendly. She manages the cashiers in Sweet, and I think it says something about her management skills that all but one cashier has returned from last season.

Me–The BEST intern. By the way, I had my midseason review today… all positive notes, no negative. I’d say I’m doing a great job here! Oh, and I’m the only Californian on staff.

Terri–The quiet and lovable friend. Terri is very soft spoken, but extremely intelligent and always kind to others. It’s impossible to dislike her. She comes from a small town in Illinois. This is also Terri’s 5th season as a Sweet Memorial cashier at EPC. I have hiked with her twice now, and it’s such a pleasure to be in her company. Terri is now finished with school, and is applying for an internship with Amnesty International. I really hope she gets the position.

Crystal–The bubbly sweetheart. Crystal is from Texas and proud of it. She is very good with children and also possesses a witty sense of humor. Crystal came to the YMCA for the summer with her boyfriend (ironically named Jason) who works in the golf shack. They are a very sweet couple. Crystal comes from a Recreation family. Her mom majored in it, and now she is doing the same.

Alison–the well rounded, all smiles gal! Alison has been working at EPC for about a year now, doing all kinds of jobs. During the fall she worked in Outdoor Education and now for the summer she’s in Family Programs in Sweet. She has a lot of knowledge to share with everyone on staff, and is always willing to help out the team. Alison is one of the few staff to live off campus, and was kind enough to open her house up to us this past weekend for a summer luau party. She built a very long slip-and-slide going down the hill in her backyard. Alison is also from Minnesota and went to college with Caroline.

Letitia–the creative cat. Letitia is from Arkansas and is majoring in Graphic Design. She has an addictive, bubbly personality and gets very excited over simple pleasures. She also designs all of her own hair and jewelery accessories. She has the best fashion sense of anyone in Sweet! Letitia is one of our cashiers.

Bethany–the cheesy chick. This is Bethany’s second summer her at EPC working at Sweet as a cashier. She met her boyfriend up here last summer, and they have been reunited this summer as he is working in town at a candy store. Bethany is from Wisconsin, and of course, loves cheese. She also has a great sense of humor.

BOTTOM ROW (left to right)

Lauren–the giving friend. Lauren is one of our volunteers this summer, and works in special education back in Indiana. She is always kind to everyone and truly lives her Christian values. She is a friend to everyone, and we will all miss her. Lauren is the reason we organized to take this picture–she wanted a group photo before she went home.

Nathan–the funny fellow. Nathan is by far the funniest person in Sweet. He can brighten anyone’s day with a silly joke or funny face. He is also a very talented photographer, and very good at his job. Nathan was the Spring intern in the program department, and decided to extend his contract to work through the summer. He assisted me by co-hosting the talent show, and the audience loved him.

Matt–the goofball. Matt came out to work at EPC with his childhood friend Ian. When the two of them are together, WATCH OUT! They are a comedy force to be reckoned with. He’s very proud of his fraternity, and loves to playfully poke fun of all the ladies on staff. Matt also loves to lead programs like kickball, ultimate Frisbee, or capture the flag.

Paul–the boss. Paul Taylor. He started at EPC in March and is slowly getting used to his new position. He is very supportive and always says please and thank you. Paul also co-hosted the talent show with Nathan and me.

Well there you have it! Those are the Sweeties! The only person that’s not in the photo is Jamie, but you can read about her in the “I heart Boulder CO” article. I’ll leave you with one of my favorite picture… Forth of July cupcakes on parade!

I’ve been workin’ on a Talent Show, all the live long day! July 21, 2008

For one of my intern projects, I had to organize the annual staff talent show. This show has been an EPC tradition for many years now, so I definitely felt the pressure to make this show is as good, if not better, than all the previous years. At first, I had a hard time finding people to audition for the show. By the first day of auditions, only 6 acts had signed up. I was really concerned we wouldn’t get enough participants, so I made a large poster and put it up in the staff cafeteria saying: “Missed Monday Auditions? Tryout on WEDNESDAY!” Well, I guess this worked, because by Tuesday evening, every audition time slot had been filled.

All together we had 18 acts. The show had singers, songwriters, rappers, dancers, international staff acts and more. There was a lot of variety, and the talent was vast. The dress rehearsal went very smoothly. I emceed the event along with my coworker Nathan (who is hilarious) and my boss Paul (who practically begged me to emcee the event). For intermission, we presented an 80 slide powerpoint featuring different photos taken by staff in the National Park. I figured photography is a talent too, and this was another way to bring a different flavor to the talent show and involve more staff.

Well, the show went off without a hitch! I got so many compliments from people saying how much they enjoyed the show and that they liked it more than last year’s. All of my hard work was worth it, and I actually had a lot of fun putting together the show. I didn’t have a chance to record all of the acts on my camera, but I did record a few highlights. They are featured in this 10 minutes video below. I hope you enjoy this mini show!

Sweet Memorial July 2, 2008

I’ve been working at the YMCA for over a month now, and I just realized that many of you have no idea where I work! While there are over 200 buildings on the YMCA property, I work in the best one: Sweet Memorial. We’re centrally located on the campus and probably have the third most customer traffic, following behind the administration building and the cafeteria.

It’s our job in Sweet Memorial–also known as the program building–to provide customers and guests of the YMCA with activities and suggestions on how to get the most out of their stay. We answer all questions, and if we don’t know the answer, we find out. We offer family sporting events like kickball, soccer, capture the flag, and human stratego. We run family programs out of this building that teach children about local animals, bugs, hiking, survival skills, and national park plants.

Aside from all the programs, we also give out free maps of the national park trails and give suggestions on where guests or families should hike. My favorite suggestion is to send people to the southern tip of the National Park called ‘Wild Basin’. Aside from trail maps, we also provide information about the National Park shuttle, and the Estes Park shopping shuttle. We give out brochures on white water rafting, and send guests down to the livery on a daily basis.

In the basement of Sweet Memorial, we have a game room with two ping pong tables, two pool tables, foosball and a few other obscure tabletop games. Behind the Sweet Desk, we have dozens of board games and puzzles that guests can borrow, take back to their cabin, and play with their family or friends. We also provide sports equipment like basketballs, soccer balls, frisbees, volleyballs and discs for disc golf.

Typically, I work the night shift four days a week and one day shift on Sundays. One perk of working the night shift is that it’s a lot slower in the evenings, and the supervisors have all gone home. It was about half and hour till close the evening I shot this clip, and it gives a brief tour of Sweet and our staff area. The tape does end abruptly unfortunately, because a guest came in that I needed to help (her name was Karen too!)

Bible Point June 26, 2008

The shortest hike we have on the Y property is named “Bible Point”. It’s short, but it’s entirely uphill and rather steep in places. I’ve accomplished the hike twice now. It’s a good hike to do in the mornings before the storm clouds roll in, and it also gives me a good workout. It will usually take me about 45 minutes to get from my cabin in Fern Odessa to to the top of the lookout. Below is a video of me at Bible Point:

There is a lot of history on this outlook of the National Park and YMCA, and there’s plaque and grave there describing the importance of this place to one young man in particular. The plaque says as follows:

Although Edwin Bradt had traveled around the world with his missionary parents, he said this was his favorite spot in the world. He spent many hours contemplating life from what was then called Buena Vista. After his untimely death in 1918, he was burried here. His family placed a mailbox with a Bible near his grave. The old name gradually disappeared and was replaced with a new name, Bible Point.

Edwin Bradt was born in 1899, which means he was only 19 at the time of his death. The mailbox the plaque spoke of is pictured below. There is also a stick cross that sits next to the mailbox. I realize now that I’m typing this, that I didn’t open the mailbox to look inside and see if the bible is still there. I guess I need to do that the next time I make the hike up there.

An Evening of “Bigger or Better” June 16, 2008

I got off from work at 9:30 last night and was planning on going back to my cabin and read some more of my novel. However, Lauren and Terri (two of my coworkers at the Sweet Memorial Desk) came in and asked if anyone was interested in playing a game of “bigger or better”. I had never heard of this game before, so I let Lauren explain the rules.

This game is a type of scavenger hunt, in which two teams are each given a single penny and access to a car. The team must drive around and find people who would be willing to trade with them for something “bigger or better” than what they have. This game made headlines a year ago when a man started with a red paper clip, and over a year of playing this game, traded for a house. The 20/20 story of this man is posted below.

Ten of us, mostly from Sweet Memorial, gathered to play this game.  We split into two teams of five.  On my team was Robbie (the other intern at Sweet), Terri (one of my best friends here), Jamie (a new girl who arrived in Estes Park this week), and Paul (who works in food service).  The other team consisted of Crystal, Jason, Lauren, Emily and Ian–all program staff.  They took Lauren’s car, and my team piled into my two door honda civic hatchback. We started the game at 10PM and gave ourselves an hour and a half time limit.  We had to meet back in front of the Administration building before 11:30.

Game on.  We drove down into Estes Park, and even though it was a Saturday night, most businesses were closed.  This game would be easy in a college area, but it was tricky in a small mountain town.  Robbie was the only person on our team who had played the game before, and he recommended that we stay out of businesses and bars because people don’t carry “big” items on their person.  The best place to go are residential areas where people have houses filled with crap they don’t need.

The first place we went was “the shack”, or a small house that a couple of seasonal staff lived in off site of the YMCA.  We traded our penny for a mint condition Kenny G record.  After this, we drove around wasting time trying to find other things to trade Kenny G for… nothing seemed to top it.  After exhausting all of our friend’s homes as options, we decided to knock on random people’s doors.  We were a bit nervous because it was 10:30 at night at this point, and we didn’t want to be rude.  We found one house with the lights on inside and on the front porch, so we decided to go for it.

Robbie and I knocked on the door while the rest of the crew stood back.  A women in her night rope holding a handful of spoons opened the door.  Robbie addressed her first, “Hello, we’re lowly YMCA workers and we’re playing this game…”

“Oh wait,” replied the women, taking a good look at Robbie.  “Don’t I know you?”

Robbie nodded, “Yeah… you look familiar too.”

“Did you work at the Y two summers ago?”

“Yeah, I’ve worked at the Y for the past three summers.”

“Oh, I’m Pam! I used to work in food service.”

Robbie smiled and shoot us an enthusiastic look. “Pam! Of course! How are you?”  I suppose there are benefits to playing in a small town.  Pam invited us inside, and we explained the rules of the game to her.  First, she offered us an antique tin, but we weren’t set on it being bigger or better than the Kenny G album.

Pam then suggested, “Well… I have a deep freezer.”

“… that’s PERFECT!”

Sure enough, in her garage next to their newly purchased deep freezer was a working 1960’s deep freezer! It was already empty, but just needed to be hosed down and cleaned.  Below is the video of us acquiring the freezer, and then showing it off to the other team.

I’m not going to say how we got the freezer back to the YMCA, because the other team hasn’t figured it out yet.  When we got back to the Y, the other team told us their story and how they came up with their final products.  They came back with a green traffic cone and a brand new Estes Park Brewery jacket.  As you saw in the video, Pam also gave us a box filled with old YMCA staff shirts.  When we met with the other team, we only brought the box of shirts so that the other team would think they had won.  What they didn’t know is that we had put the freezer in the lobby of the main dorm.  We told them they had to go to Howard dorm to see what else we got.  Their reaction was priceless.

This night was SO fun and I really got to know the people on my team pretty well.  I met a kind lady who opened her door to us at 10:30 at night and gave us a freezer.  We did her a favor by taking it away for her, and we also donated the freezer to the YMCA staff house for other staff members to use.  It was a win win situation, and we all had so much fun doing it.

Home Sweet Home… and bunnies too! June 14, 2008

There’s an upside and a downside to living in the Fern Odessa cabins. For one thing, I get my own room and just share a toilet with a girl named Macie. On the other hand, we live in the oldest standing cabins on the YMCA property. The hallway in my cabin, Chasm, is a small hump, as the floor boards have warped so much over the years to create a noticeable uphill and downhill. My room in particular is on a downhill slant towards my window. In fact, I’ve gotten used to sleeping with my head facing downhill by about 5-10 degrees. Our toilet doesn’t properly refill 1/3 of the times we use it, so I have to take off the top and adjust it every so often. There’s no air conditioning (not that we’ve needed it yet) and the central heating is really touchy. If you set it for 65, it feels like it’s set to 80. The other employee housing options aren’t much better–they all have three people to a room.

Even so, I like Fern Odessa, because it’s quieter than the employee dormitories (all the people in these cabins are women in their 20’s), I have my own personal space, and we have one thing the other dorms do not…. bunnies. Lots and lots of bunnies.

Sometimes, these bunnies catch me off guard as I’ll regularly see them bouncing around out of the corner of my eye. On other days, their cute twitching noses and wide eyed expressions make me smile and remember how lucky I am to be living and working in such a cool place. So, here’s to you bunny rabbits! May you live to be 2, and outwit your destiny at the bottom of the food chain!

P.S.–Hey Mom and Dad, I hope this post didn’t remind you too much of my first letter home from summer camp when I was in 2nd grade. For those of you who don’t know, it went something like this: “Dear Mom and Dad, Camp is great! We found baby mice in our food storage bin. They were cute. Love you a lot, Karin.”

Friday the 13th June 13, 2008

I would like to preface this post by saying… NONE OF THIS WAS MY IDEA. I can’t take credit for any of the planning or plotting behind this prank pulled on our boss, Paul Taylor, by his family program staff. I’ll first let you watch the video our setup of the prank, and then second explain the specifics.

As you can see in the video, our boss has a pretty nice office with with window looking into the hallway, as well as a window view of the Rocky Mountains. The original plan was to fill his entire office with balloons, but we later realized that probably didn’t have the combined lung power or balloon supplies for such a task. As it was, we only had one package of water balloons, one third of a bag of regular balloons we borrowed from the archery range, and two rubber gloves we snagged from a first aid kit. Blowing up the water balloons was extremely challenging because they were so small. After I managed to do three or four, I felt light headed and saw spots in my vision. We later improvised and used an electric ball pump to fill the last of the balloons.

My job for the evening was to run a Family Fun Night (campfire program) with Caroline and Alison, so I wasn’t able to assist with the prank after this point. When the three of us returned from our program, we found Ian and Matt using streamers to weave a basket against the door for the balloons to sit in. Alison and her boyfriend, who works at the livery, joined them inside the room at put the finishing touches on the basket (this is the video you saw). In order for them to get out of the room, they had to crawl out of Paul’s window so as not to wreck the fragile basket of balloons sitting above his door.

Well, the prank didn’t go as well as we hoped. Half the staff showed up early to work (including myself) to see Paul’s reaction. Paul claimed he saw the balloons through the window, so he just opened his door, let the balloons fall, and then walked into his office. Next time Paul… next time…

Matt and I were good employees and bagged up all the balloons and streamers for Paul. Rojean, the Recreation Adminstater in Sweet Memorial, walked by and said to us, “You should have him clean it up! You think THIS is bad Paul? When my boss (Gail) turned 40, we strung up Funyuns all over her office because we knew she hated them.” Rojean is almost 70 and will be retiring this October. She’s a hoot!

Snow in June?! June 5, 2008

Woke up this morning around 6:30 and I wasn’t hearing the pitter patter of rain that put me to sleep last night. I look outside my bedroom window, and instead of rain, I see snow falling from the sky. The grass and cars were covered in about a 1/2 inch of wet snow. Here’s a video taken from the administration building.

At breakfast, all of the employees from the northern states were teasing me. I mean, I’ve probably only been in the snow about 10 times in my life. And here it is, on June 5th… snowing. I’m in a state of shock right now… and so is my car! BUUUUUURRRRRRR!!

First impressions of the Y June 2, 2008

I have never in my life experienced a place as gorgeous and peaceful as this. The mountains surround the camp from all sides, many of them covered with lush trees, and others still white with the winter’s snow. The beauty of this place only adds to the each individual’s leisure potential while vacationing or working here. I have always wanted to pursue a career of “serious leisure” (the ability to find personal leisure and self-actualization while working towards set goals or tasks). Here at the YMCA, serious leisure comes to me rather easily.

I wish the quality of this video was better, but it still provides a good panoramic shot of the YMCA of the Rockies campus. Like I said before, the YMCA is surrounded on three sides by the Rocky Mountains National Park, and some of the trails from the Y connect to the national park.

This statue of the kids doing the “Y-M-C-A” is located in front of the administration building near the flagpole. I think it adds so much character to the place, I just had to take a picture and share it with you.