The Idyllwild Community Center (ICC) board has hired a new recreation and program director and an assistant director. The duo will manage programs at Town Hall and ICC’s other facilities.

Speaking with ICC President Stephanie Yost and her two new team members at Town Hall, the impression is that their jobs change every day, and that this is one of the main appeals of the position.

SY: “Since we hired Will Steichen (ICC’s previous recreation director) in 2019, the job duties have expanded considerably because we’ve added more programs and acquired new facilities to care for. So, we now have two people to take his place. Will is leaving to pursue his master’s degree at UCLA. It seemed like a good time to look at adding the assistant director position.”

TC: “How have the Idyllwild Community Center programs at Town Hall grown?”

SY: “We have expanded our child care program. We have expanded our Fit After 50 program. We have taken on managing the Farmer’s Market. We became the local affiliate for Feeding America (monthly free food distributions). The Summer Concert Series has expanded over time. Once the renovation of Town Hall was completed (in 2020, we didn’t really reopen until 2021) we have had many more rentals; local nonprofits (like the Actor’s Theater, the Art Alliance and Rotary) and businesses, families holding parties and weddings, retreats and conferences. The same with the amphitheater.”

Recreation and Program Director Bridget Noer moved here from Hemet about 10 years ago to work at Ferro, but has many connections on the Hill going back further. She was a Girl Scout leader.

Assistant Director Emily Jimenez has been here for 22 years, growing up on the Hill. She was a camp counselor and “horse wrangler” (official title) at Camp Ronald McDonald in Mountain Center. She also credits her efforts in mounting the recent fundraiser to repair the Idyllwild Skate Park as getting her into the position. Yost commented that this provided “an opportunity to see her organizational skills as well as her commitment to the community. Both women, in their paid work experience, and in the community service sense, have a tremendous amount of experience interacting with the community and understand the importance of customer service. We interact with the community constantly and take a very customer-centered approach to providing services to the community.”

All three seem to love the variety of duties that fall to them. Over and over the words came out: “Every day is different.” Another phrase was “super exciting.”

BN: “Some days it’s just opening and locking doors. Yesterday we had to climb into the tube slide to remove graffiti. While we have a full-time maintenance man, things come up all the time that need to be taken care of quickly. We ask, ‘Can we do it?’”

Yost wanted to underline the extent of ICC’s footprint and responsibilities now. In addition to Town Hall and the Butterfield Amphitheater, they also manage the ICC Playground, the Skate Park, the Dog Park and the Pickleball Courts. All this as progress continues on the construction of the new Community Center itself. “It’s a lot of places to take care of.”

BN: “They each have their own little area that needs to be taken care of.”

SY: “These two certainly have a lot to do. We’ve just finished Summer Camp and the kids are back in school. A lot of our focus is now on after-school programs and youth sports.”

EJ: “We have 12 [soccer] teams. Organizing it was something I’d never done before. It was really cool to be on this side of the field. There are three divisions, each with four teams; a division for 4 to 6 year olds, one for 7 to 9, another for 10 to 13. There are over 100 kids in the program.”

Jimenez’s duties with the sports program included “registration, working with the coaches scheduling practices and games, ordering shirts and equipment, and maintaining existing equipment and working with Idyllwild School. “We do a contract with the district to share the top field,” she said.

BN: “This has to be coordinated so there are no conflicts with their programs. We submit an electronic schedule to HUSD; it has to be approved by several different people before it is finalized.”

TC: “You are becoming monsters of organization!”

BN: “There is always so much going on. It’s fun, even if you get pulled into so many different directions every day. Everything needs to be well-organized and planned.”

SY: “They also need to be prepared to help other staff with their jobs if we are down a person.”

Yost explained that both director and assistant are completing their Fit After 50 certification so they will be able to step in if needed, and they already fill in with the child care programs. Yost also mentioned the on-the-job training the pair underwent to smooth the transition:

SY: “The pair had a chance to shadow Will Steichen for three weeks before he left to see what he did. Even with all that time, new situations and questions come up regularly and they’re doing a great job stepping into their new roles. They just did the Feeding America food distribution for the first time without Will.”

BN: “It went well. We’re very thankful that all of our programs in place are running very smoothly. We just need to keep that forward momentum.”

TC: “What else can you tell our readers about this new step for you?”

BN: “Out of all the places to land work-wise on the Hill, this opportunity presented itself and we’re very fortunate. We’re very happy to be here and look forward to adding more programs and events over time.”

SY: “We have a good, strong team to maintain our existing programs, and as we build out we have more programs and events in the planning stage. It’s exciting to have people who use the facilities have a voice, and it’s great to have their input and ideas.”

BN: “We were at the Skatepark yesterday, just ‘tearing it up.’” [Note to readers, this means exerting themselves and not performing demolition.]

SY: “We had a number of applicants for the position, over a dozen. The hope at ICC was to find one or more solid candidates who were local; with such variable hours and so much community interaction we thought this would be the best fit. We’re delighted to have Bridget and Emily on the ICC staff team.”

When the recent Fairview Fire activated emergency plans on and around our mountain, Town Hall took on another of its many roles, opening its doors to those suffering power outages. ICC President Stephanie Yost explained:

“The Idyllwild Community Center has had a contract with SCE since the completion of Town Hall in summer of 2020 to be a cooling/warming/charging center in the event of a power outage because we have a generator there. Edison has used it several times when weather (wind, snow, ice) threatens our power on the Hill. They notify ICC within 24 hours of their intended usage of Town Hall when there is a possibility of an outage, and they bring small emergency kits, water and snacks to hand out to those in need.”