Okemo Mountain Commemorates Green Up Day
LUDLOW, VT – Okemo Mountain Resort commemorated Vermont Green Up Day on May 16. Staff members donned blue latex gloves and, with trash bags in hand, scoured the Resort for litter. Separating into pairs and small groups, employees dispersed along roadways, around the base areas and up the mountain, under lift lines and along lower-mountain ski trails.
Okemo’s Green Up Day is an annual event. Employees spend the morning picking up trash and then gather for a barbecue lunch, courtesy of Okemo, to discuss some of their greatest and strangest finds.
“In addition to the benefits of keeping Okemo beautiful,” said Okemo Vice President and General Manager Bruce Schmidt, “Green Up Day is a community project that emphasizes teamwork by bringing staff from different departments together in a way to make the Okemo team even stronger.”
“My wife told me to come home tonight with some treasure,” quipped Jackson Gore Inn Assistant General Manager John Boehrer. The only thing of value he found during Okemo’s Green Up Day was a nickel.
Loose change was the extent of the treasure found during the resort-wide clean up. Okemo’s IT department traveled as a team and collectively found 75 cents and a metal fork. Group Sales Director Brian Halligan found $1.45 in change, a ski pole and something that looked like part of a wedding veil, under the chairlift at Jackson Gore. Okemo Vice President of Development and Real Estate Ted Reeves was the big winner with a find of more than $3 in change and a half-dozen golf balls that he found while patrolling under the tracks of the Timber Ripper Mountain Coaster and around Lumberin’ Cal Miniature Golf Course in Okemo’s Adventure Zone. Okemo Owner Tim Mueller found lots of handwarmers and a few crushed beverage cans beneath the lifts in Okemo’s Clock Tower Base area.
Okemo’s commitment to the environment extends beyond Green Up Day. The Resort works closely with Efficiency Vermont, a non-profit organization that provides technical assistance and financial incentives to Vermont households and businesses, to help them reduce their energy costs with energy-efficient equipment and lighting and with energy-efficient approaches to construction and renovation. The Jackson Gore Inn has been recognized as a Green Hotel in the Green Mountain State, and Okemo has been awarded The National Ski Areas Associate Silver Eagle award for it’s environmental practices.
For additional information about Okemo, visit okemo.com or call (802) 228-1600.