Michael Brindle

I am the Concessions Manager at Wilderness Road State Park in Ewing, VA. Although my title suggests I am in charge of the retail operations at the park, and I am, I also oversee the marketing for the park. I promote our programs and special events by creating professional flyers, submitting articles and photos to the local media, and utilizing social media such as this blog, flickr and Facebook.

I spent seven years at Powell Valley News as a photographer and writer before joining Virginia State Parks in March 2005. I rely heavily on my time at the newspaper to assist me in the marketing portion of my job description. One of the best aspects of working at Wilderness Road State Park is the interaction with our customers. The entire staff at the park goes the extra mile to try to make our customers feel welcome and enjoy their stay with us.

Another aspect of the park that really ignites a spark in me is our special events. Wilderness Road offers a variety of special events ranging from historical reenactments such as the Raid at Martin’s Station, cultural events such as the Heritage Festival, and fun, yet educational ones such as Pumpkins in the Park, the Candlelight Ghost Tours and the Mystery Dinner Theatre. Those last three I mentioned hold a special place in my heart, as the park has entrusted me to coordinate these very popular events. It’s like being a kid all over again, getting to map out our Haunted Trail with scenes based on local folklore. For the ghost tours, I get to tap into our local history to create stories that immerse our guests into a realm that borders on surreal. The dinner theatre is probably the most unique event we do at the park, serving 50 dinner guests each night while we stay in character and perform the play around them. Having the honor of writing the script definitely gets my creative juices flowing.

When not fully entrenched into the on-goings at Wilderness Road, I treasure my time at home with my wife Penny and our amazingly smart daughter, Reagan, named after one of my heroes and my favorite president, Ronald Reagan. We all enjoy landscaping our yard, having a fun barbecue on the deck and sitting down to enjoy some family time, which usually involves my wife on her tablet, my daughter on the computer and me on my smartphone. Well, I guess that’s considered family time in modern terms.