Shaner Hotels participate in Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day

Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work Day is a non-profit educational program in the United States, Canada and Australia that revolves around parents taking their children to work for t

he day. This year it was celebrated on Thursday, April 26. Employees, across the United States and around the world, typically invite their own children or relatives to join them at work, but the program particularly encourages employees to invite children from residential programs or shelters who may not be exposed to many adults in skilled professions today.

This year the Buffalo Marriott HARBORCENTER, Pittsburgh Marriott City Center and the Newport Harbor Hotel and Marina participated with great success. The following is how each hotel described the events that took place during their work day.

The Buffalo Marriott HARBORCENTER:

We had children representing parents in Banquets, Engineering, Housekeeping, Sales and the Kitchen. This made three years in a row attendance for a couple of the kids! It’s so fun seeing them grow over the years.

They had a busy day that kicked off with a big welcome from Sabretooth at our daily stand up and we kept on track with the attached agenda. Each department took time out of their busy operation to welcome the kids and teach them about their role in the hotel with a fun activity.

The kids were given aliases to check in to reservations and they get to experience the warm welcome the guests get from the front drive all the way up to seeing the room, including the Presidential Suite which is always a crowd favorite. A scavenger hunt had them use the information that they learned during the hotel tour to return to the different departments to pick up prizes along the way to the next clue. Chef Jason provided a live demonstration of how to mix and form gnocchi which he then turned into lunch later that day. We provided the kids with laminated recipe cards (attached), aprons and chefs hats to take home. We worked up our appetites by exploring KeyBank Center, the arena attached to our building that is the home ice for the Buffalo Sabres (NHL) and home turf for the Buffalo Bandits (NLL). After lunch the kids were instructed about the components that go into making a well-balanced drink and they divided into groups to craft mocktails out of house-made syrups and fresh-squeezed juices. Sales wrapped up the departments by sitting with each kid to ask them to help plan the 2018 Breakfast with Santa event using the attached sales contract. Clorissa Bapst – DOS said “We’re definitely going to incorporate their suggestions when it comes time to plan this December!” The day wouldn’t be complete without a second special visitor, this time Buster Bison, the mascot for the local Triple-A baseball team, who passed out pairs of baseball tickets to everyone for their participation in the scavenger hunt.

The Newport Harbor Hotel and Marina’s:

In operations, the children worked in Housekeeping stripping rooms, watching AYS answer phones and the Front Desk greeting and checking in arriving guests as well as departing ones. They also went out to the Marina watching the dock hand take reservations and adding them to our boat maps for slip rentals. Our Chief Engineer’s son worked in Engineering with DAD all day as well as seeing renovations, ordering parts, painting, cleaning and seeing how to orchestrate an Engineering department.

Each child was given a name tag, certificate for completing their day and a $50.00 gift certificate to eat with their families at Saltwater!

The Pittsburgh Marriott City Center:

The Pittsburgh team and children started with morning stand up, each child got their name badge and introduced themselves. Next, Sales led the charge in a slime making activity. They headed to the kitchen to make platters for the cookout along with filling bowls with their favorite sundae toppings for the cookout along with making drinks in Starbucks. They had a build the tallest hotel competition out of soda cans and cereal boxes.

Finally, housekeeping hosted a scavenger hunt in the guest rooms and a caricature artist joined the team and did caricatures of the kids with their parent.