New start for PV's tourism
Jul. 12—By Barry Porterfield
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The excitement is genuine for Pauls Valley's new tourism director as she's already thinking about how to tap into the potential for the town to be more of a destination for visitors.
Tawni Vickers can't seem to stop a big smile from flashing up as she stepped into her new role last week taking over for Becky Ledbetter.
In fact, Vickers got her new journey started with a walk around town to chat with as many people as could find. The idea is to find out what people think and what they want.
"That's what I do," Vickers said. "I like to walk around and talk to people, find out what's going, tell people what's going on in their town.
"My goal is to find out what people want, what's going to get people to come to Pauls Valley, I want to invite others to come for a visit. I guarantee they're going to fall in love with it.
"I think Pauls Valley is sitting on a gold mine of opportunity."
A big reason for Vickers' new chapter in life is her husband, Todd Huggans, has family connections to Pauls Valley.
Another Garvin County connection for Vickers is Wynnewood, a place where her grandparents once lived and where her mother grew up.
As for Vickers, she grew up and calls Sapulpa home, a town of around 22,000 people on the outskirts of Tulsa.
Her move to Pauls Valley is also a nice fit because for the past three years she's worked as Sapulpa's marketing director on a chamber of commerce tourism committee.
Vickers has some really fond memories of working to build one very big Christmas festival in Sapulpa.
"I once got the Today Show to come to Sapulpa because of that."
Now that Vickers has her new mission as the tourism director here she wants to combine a couple of things meant to really sell Pauls Valley to others.
"Marketing your city and tourism goes hand in hand," she said.
"I would like to see a marketing push for Pauls Valley. I want us to have positive stories about Pauls Valley out there. I want Pauls Valley talked about all the time.
"Tourism is the events that bring people into town for a visit. Marketing is the everyday, run-of-the-mill stuff that tells people that Pauls Valley is great.
"I want to shed some light on the potential here in Pauls Valley. There's so much potential here maybe it just takes an outsider coming in to see that. People just need to be told about it so they'll come in from the outside and see that for themselves."
Already a bit on the nervous side about planning for PV's BrickFest celebration in September, Vickers says she also has an eye on creating smaller and more regular events to get people involved in some community fun.
