Internship at Piragis Northwoods leads to the revival of "Wednesday Night Paddles"

by Adam Macht

With four years of college completed at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse, the last criterion I needed finish to earn my degree in Recreation Management was an internship. My particular internship is worth 16 credits, runs for 16 weeks, and is filled with a number of specific areas that I need to gain experience in with my time as an intern.

A degree in Recreation Management allows me to pursue an internship in a wide variety of areas. I have classmates who are working with municipal park and recreation departments, YMCAs, fitness centers, water parks, resorts, and as event planners, to name a few. While searching for the right internship, I considered all of these options, but none of them really seemed to fit for me. I have always been the type of person who loves to be on the water—I especially enjoy fishing. While living in the La Crosse, WI area, I spent a great deal of time fishing from a canoe on the backwaters of the Mississippi River. My time on the backwaters shifted my professional focus to water and wilderness related recreation with a personal interest in recreational fishing. With this in mind, I turned the focus of my internship search to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, where the water is endless, the wilderness pristine, and the fishing incredible. Immediately, I discovered the Piragis Northwoods Company, a perfect fit for my professional interests. After meeting with Steve Piragis and working out the details with the university, my internship was all set up and I was ready to get to Ely.

This is now my fourth week interning here at Piragis Northwoods Company, and so far, it has exceeded all of my expectations. First and foremost, everyone here has been amazing and incredibly helpful. From the seasonal staff to the people who have been with the company since the beginning, everyone in one way or another has made my first four weeks in Ely memorable. It seems like a pretty tight-knit group of people, creating a very productive yet fun work environment, which makes learning easy for me.

Thus far, a major part of internship has simply been familiarizing myself with the business. This means that I have spent a fair amount of time working on the retail floor. This has helped me learn about all the really great products we sell and where they are in the store, but also helped me become familiar with our guests. I have also had the opportunity to work behind the scenes in the shipping department, where all our catalog and online orders are filled and sent out. I have had the opportunity to sit in on weekly staff meetings, which have really helped me learn the ins and outs of the business as a whole. The bulk of my work, however, has been in the marketing area. I have learned a great deal from Tim, our marketing director, about promoting certain aspects of the business, improving our website and online catalog, and researching new and innovative ways to promote Piragis Northwoods Company. I have had a chance to write a couple of articles for the newsletter and help with the overall production of it. I am also responsible for adding over 300 new books to our online catalog.

The newest project I am working on is organizing a Wednesday Night Paddle to give people an opportunity to test paddle canoes and kayaks before they purchase one. This will be like a "MINI SUNSPLASH Try Before You Buy" event each week. We'll have a sign up sheet and you can indicate which canoes or kayaks you'd like us to shuttle down to the beach for you to paddle. (This event was a big success a couple of years ago, when it was done regularly throughout the summer. Thanx Adam for devoting your time and energy to this project.)

Overall, my experience has been phenomenal. I am meeting lots of great people, spending some time fishing in the BWCA, and most importantly, receiving a great learning experience. So if you are in the Northwoods, stop in at Piragis Northwoods Company and be sure to say hi.

Sincerely,
Adam Macht

Please feel free to contact me with any questions about my internship or about the Wednesday Night paddle at 1-800-223-6565 or EMAIL me at adam@piragis.com.

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NEWSLETTER SALE SPECIAL 7 DAY SALE:

New Kayaker Pendant

Item # S33104
List Price $32.00
SALE Your Price: $25.60

http://www.boundarywaterscatalog.com/browse.cfm/4,6627.html


Throughout the summer we're going to feature certain items in our newsletters at discounted rates. We encourage you to take advantage of these savings quickly because the sale prices are short term (good for only one week). These are not closeout items or inventory reduction sales, we just want you to have a chance to save on some of our bestselling items from time to time.

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Visit our Amish Furniture room while you are here in Ely

Handmade hickory furniture made in the U.S.A. by experienced artisans. Bentwood furniture is a thing of beauty and these rocking chairs, bookshelves, magazine racks and tables are built to last. Take home a rare piece of comfort and art and remember your favorite place in Minnesota.

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Join Steve Piragis this Fall in Vietnam as he guides for Worldwide Paddling Adventures.

More than just a spectacular place to kayak, Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Here, a community of permanently nomadic boat people live their entire lives on water among the 3,000 islands. In our travels through the Ha Long archipelago, we will discover the beauty of the limestone caves, delight in fresh seafood each day, and observe the unique lifestyle of the Vietnamese fishermen.



Check out Worldwide Paddling Adventures http://www.worldwidepaddlingadventures.com/trips/trips/kayaking-vietnam.html for more information or contact Steve Piragis at steve@piragis.com.

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From the Minnesota DNR newsroom:
"First graders explore and learn in the great outdoors"

Some 102 students from Warroad Elementary School spent their last day of first grade in an outdoor classroom learning about the environment at Red Lake Wildlife Management Area (WMA). Each took part in five separate learning sessions throughout the day, thanks to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Wildlife Section.

One station was a tour of the historic Norris Camp, a preserved Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) camp from the 1930s. The 6- and 7-year-old students participated in an interactive history lesson when they were asked to pretend they were new CCC enrollees arriving at the camp during the Great Depression.

According to teacher Mary Mohrbacher, “First graders love to pretend, so that really helped them get into it and follow along better.”

Three of the learning sessions involved nature hikes or tours. The students learned about current forestry practices as they walked through jack pine clear-cut and regeneration areas, and were able to observe and learn about much of the nature and wildlife that abound throughout the forest. At the pond, the kids caught a variety of critters, including insects and leeches, and received a lesson about the various wetland invertebrates they found.

There was also a session on outdoor safety that explained how to avoid getting lost, what to do if you get lost and how to provide basic emergency first aid.

“One of our main objectives for the day was to let the kids explore the outdoors with a little guidance about what they were finding,” said Gretchen Mehmel, DNR Wildlife Section area supervisor. “We hope this small taste of the outdoor world will inspire them to get outdoors themselves throughout the summer.”

Norris Camp is located near Roosevelt, about 30 miles southeast of Warroad.