Lynne Piippo To Lead St. Ignace Visitors Bureau

The St. Ignace Visitors Bureau staff includes (from left) Beth Krasniuk, executive director Lynne Piippo, and Deb Durm.

Lynne Piippo of St. Ignace has been selected from among 40 applicants as the new executive director of the St. Ignace Visitors Bureau, the hiring committee announced Thursday, November 16. She will begin the job Monday, December 4.

"We are excited to welcome Lynne with her knowledge of marketing and sales," said Chris Shepler, chairman of the five-person hiring committee. Twenty applicants were interviewed

over the last six weeks, with the search ultimately narrowed to three candidates.

Mrs. Piippo comes to the bureau from a marketing position with Kewadin Casino in St. Ignace, where she had worked for nine years.

"I learned a lot there about marketing," Mrs. Piippo said, "and I'm really looking forward to this job. It will be a unique opportunity to broaden what I had already been doing for the casino. In this case, we look at the overall community and see how we can all work together."

She noted that as the county seat, the largest city in the county, and the "crossroads" into the U.P., the St. Ignace community needs to have a comprehensive, yeararound promotional effort.

Mrs. Piippo, a longtime St. Ignace resident, is married to Jerry Piippo, who works at Schwartz Boiler of Cheboygan. They have four children, Jesse Piippo, who is serving in the U.S. Army in Iraq, Cassandra Piippo, a biomedical engineer, Lacy DelGreco, an engineer, and Nikki Nye of Toledo, Ohio.

At the bureau, Mrs. Piippo replaces former director Kelly Simmons, who resigned September 12.

Made up of motel owners and funded by a two percent motel room tax, the Visitors Bureau's goal is to market and promote St. Ignace to increase motel room revenue by making potential visitors aware of St. Ignace as a travel destination.

The bureau is staffed by two part-time employees, Debbie Durm and Beth Krasniuk, in addition to the director.

New events planned by the Visitors Bureau in 2007 include a Pond Hockey Tournament on Moran Bay February 24, for which registrations are starting to come, and the development of a summer farm market. Once a community has an established farm market, Mr. Shepler said, funds become available to build a pavilion for the market. Visitors Bureau board member Mark Sposito is researching this idea further, Mr. Shepler said.

The Visitors Bureau will also continue to sponsor the jet ski event with Marianne Huskey, a Yooper Motorcyle Show, and the June Red Hat Convention next year.

"We'll also continue our partnership with the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, which has worked out The bureau is led by a ninemember very well for us," he said. "We can track inquiries coming in from that program on an 800 number to the office, and the return on investment has been successful for us."

St. Ignace is promoted as a travel destination in museum publications and in trailers at its IMAX theater.

board of directors which includes David Swope, president, Wanda Paquin, vice president, Howard Cole, treasurer, Mark Sposito, Jay Tremble, Pete Della- Moretta, Jim DeKeyser, Mr. Shepler, and Pat Doud.

Forty-seven businesses are members of the Visitors Bureau.