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Making a good first impression Allee Gaede to spend summer working at 60th Parallel Visitor Information Centre
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, July 1, 2013
60TH PARALLEL
For many travellers crossing the 60th Parallel into the NWT, Allee Gaede is the first Northerner they will meet.
Allee Gaede, a tourist information officer at the 60th Parallel Visitor Information Centre, stands in front of a stuffed polar bear - one of the many exhibits at the centre on Highway 1. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo |
Gaede is a tourist information officer at the 60th Parallel Visitor Information Centre on Highway 1 at the NWT/Alberta border.
"I really like this job," she said. "I like meeting new people."
This will be the first summer the Hay River resident has worked at the centre. She started in May and will work until September.
Gaede has already met people from many parts of the world.
"Probably the furthest person was a guy from Egypt," she said.
Other visitors have come from Germany and many parts of Canada and the United States.
"It's nice to hear their stories, and hearing that it's their first time up here," Gaede said.
All the visitors she has met have their own reasons for travelling to the NWT.
"Everybody is different," she said. "Some people come up here to bird watch. Some people come up here just to say they came this far."
Other popular reasons for venturing North include fishing and hunting.
Visitors have some common questions as they enter the NWT, about road conditions, the distances between communities and where they can camp.
There are also some more unusual questions, said Gaede.
"I have had some people ask when the northern lights come out," she said, adding some visitors want to know if the northern lights come out at this time of year, or even during the day.
She is ready to answer most of the questions asked by travellers since she has lived in the NWT for years, but sometimes she has to search for information on the computer.
"There are some things I didn't know," she said.
The 21-year-old Gaede is aware a visitor information officer at the border plays an important role.
"It's sort of like the first impression of the North," she said.
Several years ago, the GNWT spent about $1 million to build the new visitor information centre and improve the grounds around the building, along with $150,000 for a new welcome sign at the border.
The old visitor information centre and sign dated back to the 1960s.
The centre had its grand opening in June 2011, although it actually opened for visitors the year before as work continued on displays inside.
Gaede had not known much about the centre until she was hired for her job this summer.
"This is actually my first time being in here," she said. "We drove by all the time,
but I've never really stopped in."
Now that she has seen what's in the 60th Parallel Visitor Information Centre, Gaede is impressed.
"I never expected it to look like this. I thought it was a really nice setup," she said, gesturing towards the stuffed animals, crafts, maps and other features filling the building.
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