Louisville Article and My Response

[Travelinana]

Bethers, Arline Chandler(lady I told you about in earlier email) had this on Facebook today. www.workamper.com/ibn/ If this somehow doesn't work just go to the site and click on 'in between news'

[bluepinecones]

Outstanding response, Beth - would make any RVer proud (and those of us still on the fringe).

[Bethers]

The Workamper article - they LIKED the Louisville article. Huh??? Or did they write in haste and get the articles mixed up???? Just checked - and it's a different article (and a good one) NOT the one I gave. Wonder if they didn't see the one I did?

[Travelinana]

I think I'm confused...but not unusual for me Did the Louisville paper publish your response? That would have been the only way Workamper would have known about it, wouldn't it Arline's website is www.arlinechandler.com Bethers, if you are not already published you should be.

[Bethers]

I think I'm confused...but not unusual for me Did the Louisville paper publish your response? That would have been the only way Workamper would have known about it, wouldn't it Arline's website is http://www.arlinechandler.com Bethers, if you are not already published you should be.

No, I haven't heard from the paper. But the link to workamper news you gave above - is about a story of this subject, with a DIFFERENT article than the one I responded to. A good one on the business pages. And they talk about a bad USA Today article - I don't know that Workamper knows of my article - but my blog does get found. I have a reply to that from a lady from RV Lifestyle Experts. I need to invite her to join the forum

[Getupngo]

Great letter, Beth. You did get wound up ... and this was the "tempered" vs. the "temper" letter? The other one must have scorched the screen. But all of your points are well taken. I'm a former journalism war-horse, and I'd think with the amount of news hole dedicated to your poor downtrodden souls the writer could have been more balanced.

The way the story was written made me think of this headline: "The Grapes of Wrap."

[Forestgal]

There was a piece on ABC's World News Tonight (with Diane Sawyer) about workcampers. They featured some folks in KY who are working at Amazon. I think it was fair, in that it talked about people looking for work and their mobility being an asset to traveling to where the jobs are. It wasn't meant to slam those living in RVs, but rather to highlight the resourcefulness of those who are out of work and trying to support themselves in creative ways.

I think that, given the current state of our economy, showing people that there ARE ways to find jobs if one has enough gumption is a good thing. There are just too many people sitting on their backsides having pity parties right now. So, kudos to Diane Sawyer and group for showing their viewers just how creative RVers can be.

[Bethers]

I didn't see the ABC piece, but heard good things about it - that it was fair and showed all sides. There was also another article in local news here that was fair - on the business pages of a paper- showing how much Amazon has helped this community and now how the workampers are helping Amazon in the fight for enough employees during this season when their simply aren't enough locally to do so.

When we had our orientation here, Campbellsville welcomed us with open arms. Said how when Amazon came here the unemployment rate here was over 20% - and that now, with us coming in - it is an influx of money in the local town - good for everyone. I know I used their laundromat today and shopped at the local Kroger's. Was going to eat out, but the lousy weather convinced me to get something easy to fix from Kroger's. So, still money spent here. A couple rv parks have been built just because of Amazon. The others are full because of Amazon. The state park is getting $17 a day for those of us here. And Amazon pays for the honeywagon service once a week here. The state park normally would be closed now - so this is all gravy to them. Yes, they spent some money to redo their water to make this work, but hey, they're making it back. Last year was the first one Amazon had workampers here - 50. This year, mulitply that by about 10. Next year they are talking possibly 1000-1200. That's a great deal of money for the local economy - and a paycheck for those who can take it.

All that - AND they hire locally as much as they can - all full-time jobs are local. And they bus folks in from over an hour away to get enough help picking these last few weeks.

I'm happy to see that there are still reporters out there doing fair and equitable stories. Sometimes I wonder.

[Bethers]

The ABC story is still focused on those following work - but in a much more positive manner. Good story:
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/amazon-o ... 265&page=1

[kelpie]

Great response to the article, Beth and good comments from the sistahs, as usual. I'm seriously considering working there next year since it's only 6 hours from home. Do you get a discount at Amazon? lol

[ali1257]

Beth I think your response was wonderful and think it should be published. We did see the ABC News Show and thought it was done from a neutral stand. We are thinking of maybe doing Amazon as well. Depends on where and what we are doing as we have a couple of conversations going on with a couple of campgrounds for next year.