 |
Alaska Airlines Employees Celebrate "Alaska Spirit Day"
|
3/27/2008 10:38 a.m.
|
A recent contest at Alaska Airlines gave the airline's 10,000 employees the opportunity to celebrate Alaska Spirit.
The "Alaska Spirit Day" contest's group and individual winners were the Cordova, Alaska, station and Ketchikan, Alaska, Lead Customer Service Agent Tris Nausid, respectively. Nausid won for a poem she wrote, while Cordova won by going back in time to the pioneering bush pilot days of the airport's namesake, Merle "Mudhole" Smith. Customer Service Agent Jeanine Buller came up with the idea of re-creating a 1930s-era photo she spotted in a book about Smith's life.
"Then we just all started brainstorming from there," said Lisa Jones, Cordova customer service manager.
Agents decorated the airport's old terminal building—and original home of Cordova Airlines—with crates of furs, snowshoes, a bush plane and vintage signs. Then they donned parkas and posed for a photo with a malamute dog borrowed from the owner of a local flying service.
"We had to keep feeding the dog beanie weenies to get him to pose for the picture," Jones said. "I guess that was his modeling fee."
Nausid's winning poem was inspired by her 24 years as an Alaska Airlines customer service agent.
"I began writing the poem for another contest 12 years ago, then updated it for Alaska Spirit Day," said Nausid. "It expresses exactly how I feel about Alaska Airlines."
Charlotte Duval, employee programs and events specialist and member of the judging committee, agrees. "Her poem really captures the spirit of Alaska Airlines," she said. "You can tell it was written by somebody who loves her job."
The Alaska Spirit Day contest attracted more than 60 entries from around the system. In addition to pictures and poems, entries included songs, PowerPoint presentations, posters, videos and more. Among the more unique entries was a photo of LAX Lead Customer Service Agent Joshua Nehasi eating a raw salmon.
Honorable mentions went to Sitka station employees, who used body English to spell out "Sitka Alaska Spirit Top Guns," and Ketchikan Lead Customer Service Agent Mary Dossett, who sent a TTY message to all stations asking: "We got spirit, yes we do. We got spirit, how about you?"
"We received responses from all around the system," said Dossett.
Also receiving an honorable mention were employees at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, who served cookies to customers and co-workers to help "take a bite out of the competition."
A final honorable mention went to Elizabeth and Kelly Walsh, the 12- and 9-year-old daughters of Senior Applications Analyst Darren Walsh for a video they produced about an imaginary trip to Hawaii on Alaska Airlines.
|
|
|
