Rhonda Ellis has certainly done her share of work when the NJCAA Division II Tournament is in town. But this year it’s a little different. Last summer, Ellis replaced the retiring Jeanie Cooke as Executive Director of the Danville Area Visitor’s Bureau. But despite being the person on top this year, Ellis has certainly seen this busy time before.
AUDIO: So I’m still in charge of everything, plus overseeing the office. It’s been a little different. But we’re getting through, and my staff’s been great to pick up the slack where I can’t always do everything.
Rhonda Ellis (left) took over last summer for the retiring Jeanie Cooke (right) as Executive Director of the Danville Area Visitors Bureau
The Visitors Bureau is known for putting the volunteer team together. And Ellis says, as we are told every year, previous volunteers do not wait to be contacted. She had people coming to her office in January. And there’s other concerns as well, including hotels. Although it helps having DACC and Parkland both playing this year.
AUDIO: And then we also help with the hospitality room. Really good response; over 40-some restaurants giving food to us…..I mean having the two local teams helps. It kind of disperses the rooms a little bit better. Because we’ve had, maybe to outreach, over to Crawfordsville if we needed them. But we haven’t had to use those. Everything’s staying in Danville, local; which we appreciate.
And getting back to the volunteers, Ellis says another important thing to remember is that tournament volunteers are not only seen out at Mary Miller Gymnasium during the games. A lot of them make their contributions “away from the playing court.”
AUDIO: I have some really good volunteers that have done some background work. Like, somebody delivered stuff out to the hotels for me this week. Somebody’s cutting vegetables right now. Somebody made all my volunteer badges. I have a really good list of volunteers that like to help out, even if they’re not out at the tournament. They like to help behind the scenes.
The tournament begins Monday morning (March 16th) at 9 AM, beginning the week long ride to Game Number 32 for the championship Saturday night. The games can be heard on 1490 WDAN, as well as on the NJCAA website.
