With just 29 days as executive director of the Vance County Tourism Development Authority under her belt, Pam Hester is already working diligently on the annual car show, planning new events and discovering “hidden treasures” in the area.
Hester, who began her new role on July 2, 2018, previously worked with Henderson’s Main Street Program organizing, directing and coordinating overall operations of the Henderson-Vance Downtown Development Commission and the Main Street Program.
Along with Norman Dickerson, administrative assistance for Vance County Tourism, Hester was on-air Tuesday with WIZS’ Town Talk program to discuss Vance County’s largest tourism event – the annual Show, Shine, Shag and Dine Car Show. This popular event, held on Garnett Street in historic downtown Henderson, will celebrate its 17th year entertaining locals and visitors alike on Friday, October 19 and Saturday, October 20, 2018.
“Right now, we are working daily on the car show,” said Hester. “We are expecting 25,000 people to come to town.”
With the exception of 2016, when a hurricane literally rained on the parade, Dickerson said the show continues to grow, “We have a lot of repeats [attendees], but we also have new people that come each year. This is the show’s 17th year, so it has a good foundation.”
While working hard to put the finishing touches on the car show, Hester and Dickerson are also keeping other ideas on the “backburner.” “We are working on having a bass television show come and do a segment on Kerr Lake and Vance County,” Hester said. “We are also working on fishing tournaments and contracts.”
Perhaps Hester’s biggest accomplishment in her less than a month in office has been the creation of the Vance County Tourism Facebook page. “I’m big into social media, so we’ve created a Facebook page and we are trying to promote what I’m calling the ‘hidden treasures’ of the area.”
Hester has been pleasantly surprised by the number of Vance County residents who are sharing information from the new page, “I think it’s huge that so many people are helping us promote tourism. We have a great city in Henderson and a great county in Vance County.”
In addition to social media, Hester believes the key to successfully promoting tourism in the area includes “marketing, teamwork, building partnerships, community support and capitalizing on the resources that we have.”
And, according to Hester, Vance County has many current resources that can be promoted in new ways, “Vance County is so fortunate to have a state-of-the-art facility in McGregor Hall, a state-of-the-art library, Kerr Lake and many hidden treasures.”
Hester has spent some time in her first month in office exploring areas of Vance County that she was previously unfamiliar with. “As a life-long resident, I can say some of the things I’ve been exposed to in my less than 30 days [on the job], I did not realize were here.”
Starting the job mid-year, Hester said she set two goals for herself, “My goals [for this year] when I came on-board were to make the car show happen and to bring in one new event and I think we already have that secured.”
Hester said details about new events are in the early planning stages and will be revealed in the near future.