Focused Future: launch of the ‘Passport to Adventure’

An estimated 175 people representing all of La Paz County, including Bouse, Ehrenberg, McMullen Valley, Quartzsite and elsewhere, came together this week to launch a community development program at BlueWater Resort & Casino.

“In late 2011 some of the leaders in our community got together,” said Mary Hamilton, Parker Area Chamber of Commerce Director. “They went to APS and got a grant and got funded for a process called Focused Future II, for economic development, community development. There were groups formed for healthcare, community development, business development, and hospitality and tourism as economic development.”

Hamilton said the Passport to Adventure emerged from that process, a new way to check in at events around the county and win prizes aimed at the area’s thousands of winter visitors.

“You get a stamp in your passport at different events throughout the winter. Once you collect three stamps, you get a Boarding Pass, which means you’re entered into a drawing for some really phenomenal prizes.”

The last event on the Passport is the La Paz County Fair in March, typically when many of the area’s ‘snowbirds’ will begin to head back to their homes in cooler states for the summer.

“The winter visitor demographic has been changing dramatically. The baby boomers are retiring and they’re wanting to be very active, so they won’t stay in one place for the whole winter,” Hamilton said.

The rollout at BlueWater Resort & Casino was a busy event, with lots of organizations represented from across the county.