DLITE chooses Jersey man, girlfriend to 'Host Our Coast'
Pair will explore beaches, bays and other areas on Delmarva then blog daily
LISA CAPITELLI n Staff Writer
Paul Cox, winner of the inaugural "Host Our Coast" contest, and his girlfriend, Melanie McLean, will explore Delmarva's beaches and bays as well as the hidden treasures of the area, then report daily with online videos, photos and blog posts. (June 19, 2009) If Paul Cox and his girlfriend, Melanie McLean, can travel through South America for four months, not speak the language and still document and blog about their experiences, then the two should have no problem doing the same for the lower Eastern Shore of Maryland and southern Delaware.
Cox, originally from southern New Jersey, was the winner of Delmarva Low-Impact Tourism Experiences' (DLITE) inaugural "Host Our Coast" campaign, and with McLean, of Fort Washington, Md., the duo will explore the area's beaches and bays as well as hidden treasures of the area and report back daily with online videos, photos and blog posts.
Jim Rapp, director of DLITE, said 72 applicants of all ages with a variety of backgrounds, posted video blogs on the campaign's Web site www.hostourcoast. com. People who went to the Web site could vote for their favorite candidate.
The two-month job also included $10,000 and a two-bedroom condo at the Makai Condominiums on 42nd Street to stay in while working in the resort.
Rapp said without a large advertising budget, using social media sites such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and MySpace, would be a cost effective way to get the word out about what the region has to offer.
About six months ago, Rapp said Lisa Challenger, Worcester County Tourism director, saw an advertisement for Australia's Tourism Queensland "The Best Job in the World." The winner would live on Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef for six months with job duties such as fish feeding, snorkeling and blogging about the experience. The pay was approximately $100,000. Rapp said more than 40,000 people applied.
"We wanted to do something creative and we thought this was a great idea. There are so many interesting things to do here and we want people to see that," Rapp said. "Anyone coming to the area, there are plenty of the typical tourist things to do, but if they're looking for something different than check out 'Host Our Coast' for unique experiences that you can't find in any visitor's guide, places that have amazing things to offer. We want people to say 'Let's go do that.'"
A panel of judges narrowed the list of applicants and the top 16 candidates were interviewed by phone. Cox said he was the face of the team and McLean produced the videos and did the editing.
Two weeks ago, while in the fourth month of trekking through South American posting their travel journal at www.waywardwinos.blogspot.com, Cox and McLean were in a computer lab in Argentina. After a series of missed messages, they finally got in touch with Rapp. He notified Cox that he was the winner.
"There were so many talented people that submitted videos. They had to have a good personality and they had to be engaging," Rapp said. "Paul's a traveler. We looked at what he'd been doing, we followed his blog and we liked his post. Paul and Melanie were already doing what we wanted. I think they're going to do a good job."
"When we found out about the job we were so excited," said Cox, who quit his job as a process engineer at a steel company in New Jersey to travel through South America. McLean was working in New York as a freelance photographer. "We were doing it already [in South America] and we loved it."
Cox and McLean will produce five, two- to three-minute video blogs a week and the 26-year-olds are ready to get started. The job officially began this week. Their first post went on the Host Our Coast Web site at 5 p.m. Wednesday. All of the photos, blogs and videos they take can be viewed on the Web site. They can also be followed on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.
"I'm looking forward to getting to know the area," Cox said. The last time he visited Ocean City was about 20 years ago. McLean traveled to the resort after graduating high school. "We want to find the most interesting places and find things people don't know about."
The contest was sponsored by DLITE, the Rural Development Center at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, the Makai Condominiums, Worcester County Tourism, Southern Delaware Tourism and OceanCity.com.
