(Credit: Steve Thurston, 2022)
(Credit: Steve Thurston, 2022)
(Credit: Steve Thurston, 2022)
Seasonal workers, their bosses, Warren County staff and business owners converged on Six Flags Great Escape to celebrate the summer one last time, and hold the inaugural summer staff awards ceremony, Monday Sept. 12.
Over 200 seasonal workers and some guests had a free evening of rides and food at the Great Escape, which donated the park for the event.
“We’re very happy to help participate,” said Rebecca Wood, the president of Six Flags Great Escape Resort Park on Route 9 in Queensbury.
Zack Caldwell, a maintenance worker and all-around good guy according to his bosses, won a top prize: A one-night stay in a luxury suite at the Queensbury Hotel in Glens Falls.
“He’s such a hard worker,” said Tammy O’Neal, the manager at the Lake George/Saratoga KOA Campground in Lake Luzerne. He works hard constantly and never missed a day, she said. For that reason, she picked him at the event to enter a raffle for some of the top prizes.
A six-member crew from Huttopia Adirondacks came as a sort of team-building exercise. The glamping, or glamorous camping, company had a much larger crew in the summer, but they were the people who stayed late and some will depart to travel, as allowed under the j1-Visa program. Huttopia workers took home six prizes, including Emerging Leader, Team Spirit and “Patience of a Saint,” an award that went to workers who handled difficult customers with aplomb. The awards often went to more than one person and had been nominated by their supervisors.
In all, Liza Ochsendorf of The Warren County Employment and Training Administration, handed out more than 70 gift cards and tickets worth $25 to $50. She was the principal organizer of the event.
[For a full list of the award winners, click here.]
“Primarily it [the celebration] is to celebrate our summer workforce,” Ochsendorf said, but there was another aim: Staff retention in an area that is moving more toward year-round travel and tourism.
“If you want a winter job, we can help you out,” she said.
Patrick Welton plans to give two paid personal days to seasonal staff who take a winter job and then return to work for him next summer. Welton is the area general manager of the Lake George Escape Campground, an RV, trailer and rental cottage campground. It is not part of the Great Escape.
Welton said his best employees often find full-time work and do not return the next year, but he needs them back. He said in August he began telling his staff about the incentive.
“I want them to stay sharp, to work over the winter,” he said. Staff who work locally, though he will take proof of any winter work, come back with ideas that can be used at the campground, he said.
One staffer came back this year after working the winter at Gore Mountain and could tell visitors and other campground staff all about the North Creek area and what they could do there. She had ideas for products that sold well at the mountain and had met vendors who the campground might want.
“She brought back good ideas,” Welton said.
Roger Allan, the event manager for Ice Castles, the popular ice sculpture garden and maze that made its debut in the area last year, was on hand to take applications and talk to potential winter employees. Allan works closely with the county in the Employment and Training Administration department and wanted to get a jump on recruiting this year. Like so many employers, the attraction had a hard time finding a full staff last year. They need about 40 employees, both full and part time.
Tammy Bukovinsky the lift operation supervisor at Gore Mountain said, like Ice Castles, they were working to recruit. She said they used to have a 75% or 80% return rate of workers, but they are not seeing that.
“I’m not getting as many young people,” she said.
Glens Falls Hospital staff were on hand selling raffle tickets that benefit nursing scholarships. The raffle winner, to be selected in February 2023, will win a Toyota Rav4 Hybrid donated by Romeo Toyota, according to a press release.
The plan is to continue this event on “the Monday after the car show” in Lake George Village, the county’s Ochsendorf said, adding that the car show is the official end of summer.
Representatives from the Lake George Chamber of Commerce and CVB also worked at the event.
According to the county, prizes of free tickets and gift cards were donated by:
- LG Steamboat Co.
- 10 McGillis
- Candy Apple (at Fort William Henry)
- LG Wine Outlet
- Flight Wine Bar & Restaurant
- Balsam & Birch
- Candy Space
- Coastal Society
- O’Tooles Restaurant & Bar
- 40 Oak Restaurant
- The Log Jam
- Ice Castles
- Morgan & Company
Overnight stays donated by:
- The Lake George Escape Campground (Cottage stay with a golf cart)
- The Queensbury Hotel (Luxury suite)