13 Jun First Impressions

Within my first week, I’ve met some of the management team in the office and rangers at the park. The people in the office are working, behind the scenes, on planning and strategy for the park. The people working at the park have a first-hand contact with the park visitors and the landscape. Some days I’m sitting in an office chair typing while others I’m hiking through rocky beaches. Outside of my window at work, I see one of Boulder City’s main streets, busy with the citizens of the town or visitors shopping and eating. Outside of the car window while driving through the park, I see a gorgeous desert with an awe-inspiring landscape and lake. While the view outside the window only changes as several cars drive by, each time I visit the park there’s always something new to see. So far, I’ve visited mountains, marinas and beaches. On one of the beaches – Boulder Beach – there is a picnic area and on May 20th, Lake Mead National Recreational Area hosted “Wear It Day / Póntelo a Chaleco.” The event served as a campaign launch for the “¡Ponte Vivo!’ campaign. HCI Advertising, a Hispanic advertising agency, created the public service campaign with financial help from the Outdoor Foundation and the Outside Las Vegas Foundation. HCI Advertising helped with a campaign to promote water safety to Hispanic audiences by developing and airing this video announcement on local television stations and the audio on local Spanish radio stations. I helped to prepare for the event by finalizing logistics and props, including bilingual signage and a Snapchat Geofilter that – according to its Snapchat metrics – made over 1,000 impressions. Click here to view a Snapchat video of the event with the filter.     The day of, I had the opportunity to go live on a local Spanish radio station to talk about what was happening at the event, invite listeners to the event and share some water safety tips. One of my favorite parts was meeting with community members and learning more about their passion for water safety and helping to save lives. I also met Smokey the Bear! During my first week, I encountered people and explored places. Most of all, I helped to create new spaces for people. Lake Mead is the most diverse national recreational area in the United States and I’m excited to contribute to be a part of the vision “to inspire and challenge everyone to find their connection to Lake Mead National Recreational Area and enjoy the adventure.”