Each year, the Colorado tourism industry nominates tourism employees to be recognized as Top Frontline Tourism Workers in celebration of National Travel and Tourism Week. These nominees are people who do an outstanding job of welcoming visitors to our state and providing them with the best experiences possible. The Colorado Tourism Office and tourism industry would like to thank and recognize these 2021 Top Frontline Tourism Workers for their dedication and hard work in attracting visitors to Colorado.
Logan Bartek, Glenwood Springs
Logan has been instrumental in developing the reservation system and operational plans for the Hanging Lake and Maroon Bells managed recreation areas. His uncanny understanding of the visitors' needs and that of the resource has been an overwhelming success for the user's experience while visiting two of Colorado's iconic landmarks. During the recent Covid restrictions he developed a social distancing plan while still maintaining great customer service. His attention to detail and staff training allowed the visitor an opportunity to still visit these remarkable areas. These areas had over 150,000 visitors with no Covid related cases within our frontline staff or customer tracing.
Jake Buck, Blackhawk
As an inherent part of Jake's job, he hosts guests from all over the country who are visiting Ameristar in Black Hawk. He is passionate about showing his guests the best Colorado has to offer and goes the extra mile to provide great guest service. He is a true ambassador for Colorado.
Joey Casanova, Arvada
Joey is someone who always says yes. Yes to supporting the community, yes to new ideas, yes to great service. Joey never stopped working when the shut down began. He headed into Steuben's to work take-out, create safety protocols, and pack up meals for frontline workers. As things have opened up, Joey has continued to run the food truck, delivering meals to non-profits while being the GM at Steuben's Arvada. Joey can put a smile on anybody's face. Between his constant high fives (air fives now), infectious laugh and contagious energy, you can't help but be happy around him. He is loyal, committed, and hardworking. He never shies away from a long day to support his team. He constantly creates regulars at Steuben’s, remembering names, faces, standing orders, and connecting with guests.
Jenna Gallas, Manitou Springs
Jenna Gallas is the Event Coordinator for the Manitou Springs Chamber of Commerce, as well as Event Coordinator and co-owner of the Armadillo Ranch, a live music venue. Additionally, she sits on the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, and still somehow manages time as a Den Mother for her kiddo's Cub Scouts Troop! She is an absolute superhuman of a person, and she goes above and beyond in everything she does for her community here. Before Covid you would see her on every early morning news spot for Manitou Springs events, hosting local award shows, and bringing big-name artists to town; she gets out there for Manitou Springs before anyone else does. During this last year she has had to completely upend the definition of her job due to Covid, fluidly working with all members of the Chamber and the City to help provide much-needed economic and social support to our local businesses and residents in a time where things were very uncertain. She is the most selfless and caring person I know. She completely embodies the spirit of Manitou Springs, and she loves it more than anyone.
Alicia Geib, Parachute
Alicia always has a positive attitude. Candlewood Suites gets compliments from guests on a regular basis of how wonderful she is and that she always makes them feel at home. She will stay late if she is needed and always willing to go the extra mile for not only her guests but her coworkers too. She is a true example of great customer service and our guest survey scores reflect her hard work.
Halka Herd, Snowmass Village
Halka exemplifies the qualities of an Executive Housekeeper. She has been steadfast through the ongoing COVID crisis. She has proven her ability to be agile in the ever changing landscape of regulations and process changes. Halka is a true leader.
Christian Lindblom, Breckinridge
Countless stories have come from Grand Colorado on Peak 8 about Christians dedication to “Colorado-Style” hospitality. From driving guests in his own car to DIA during a snowstorm, to giving a guest his shirt for a virtual board meeting, Christians service to guests and the travel industry is unparalleled.
Carla McCoy, Durango
Carla, worked for the D&SNGRR for more than 18 yrs. She held many positions over the years. They all involved some form of front-of-house customer service. Carla is a hero and deserves to be recognized. She is not only a professional, capable, and a customer service Rockstar, she is hilarious! She keeps the office environment upbeat and smiles on coworkers' faces all day, even on those "why am I in this business" crazy workdays.
Brenda Rojo-Hare, Limon
Brenda provides service with a smile and is always happy and energetic. No matter their nationality, ethnicity or race, Brenda treats them all like 5-star guests. She always injects humor and fun into every guest interaction. When she's not covering shifts, she's covering other areas of the hotel in addition to her own duties. She was one of seven to work since COVID struck, working long hours to ensure our guests had a great place to stay.
Chad Scothorn, Telluride
In the face of COVID, and its myriad challenges, Chad guided his restaurant from an exclusively indoor fine dining establishment into an innovative hub of dining flexibility and creativity. A transition that required learning the ins and outs of to-go meals, reheat and eat packaging, labeling, food-safe reusable containers, outdoor dining, takeout apps, and retraining his entire team. Chad drove around town for three weeks, masked and gloved, giving away many different types of bread he’d baked to learn what people liked most before reopening for takeout in the spring of 2020. Switching from indoor fine dining to takeout was a massive adjustment for him and the staff. But, doing this enabled him to keep staff employed.
Other Nominations
Congratulations to all the other frontline workers who were nominated for this award. We appreciate all you do for the industry and for our visitors. You are the face of Colorado and of our industry.
Alyssa Townsend
Amanda Krost
Azucena Corral
Brien Smith
Chad Harris
Chase Culver
Eliot Erck
Frank Slater
Gail Conroy
Genevieve Belou
Heather Hidalgo
Jessie Mathis
Joshua Mascarenas
Justin Salazar
Kay Rottenberg
Kiera Lynn
Lisa Mutz-Nelson
Lynda Larsen
Maggie Basler
Richard Rhody
Scott Steffek
Shawna Valdez