Eighteen SDSU students and one faculty member recently traveled to Pierre to participate in this year’s Governor’s Conference on Tourism.

The two-day event, held Jan. 21 and 22, consisted of a number of sessions, presentations and speakers, including an address by Gov. Mike Rounds voicing his continued support and funding of the South Dakota tourism industry.

Bruce Dickinson, assistant professor with the Department of Nutrition, Food Science and Hospitality, said that the sessions focused a lot on tourism marketing and how business owners can successfully market their goods and services.

“[The students'] eyes were opened to the vast array of tourism options in the state,” said Dickinson.

The group from SDSU was made up of hotel management majors or minors, as well as students who have just taken hotel management classes as part of their sequence.

Dickinson said that none of the students were required to attend the conference; they did it simply to learn from and make connections with some of the best in the industry.

The conference also served as a sort of “who’s who” of South Dakota tourism. From hotels and wineries to legislators, “Everyone who is anyone with South Dakota tourism was there,” said Dickinson.

This concentration of industry professionals served not only as a wealth of knowledge but also a network of possible employers and mentors for the students participating. As the only group of college students represented, they took full advantage of their access to these professionals, said Jordan Ehrlich, a senior hotel and food service management major.

“For me, being able to network with these professionals was really important,” said Ehrlich. “I handed out a few résumés and made a lot of connections.”

“The students all worked really hard,” said Dickinson. “They were up late socializing and networking with legislators and employers and then were up early the next morning to attend more sessions.”

However, in between meeting state representatives and tourism professionals, a lot of fun and learning also occurred.

“It was more fun than I thought it would be,” said Ehrlich. “I went to work and network and ended up having a good time.”

To the rest of Brookings it is known as the Brookings Regional Landfill Spring Clean Up. To college students in the know, however, it can be Christmas in April. But time is running short as all objects will be picked up by the end of this week.

The premise of this most wonderful time of the year is that any Brookings resident can clean out their garages, basements or back closets and just dump the “junk” out on the curb for the city to pick up and haul off to the landfill.

Take note that “junk” is the operative word here. This junk can be the most glorious, wonderful and magnificent treasure on earth. It is, in essence, a free, outdoor Wal-Mart in the sense that you can get anything that you would ever need right there on the street. This is especially appealing to the sophomores who are looking to furnish a house or apartment next year.

An example of this can be seen directly by taking a tour of my house. If it weren’t for garbage week, my house would lack a desk chair, an entertainment center, a kitchen table, two shelving units, two patio chairs, four kitchen chairs and a magazine rack. Needless to say, I love garbage week. In this column, I will offer some tips as well as some lessons that come straight from a garbage week veteran.

First of all, find a friend with an SUV or a truck, because you are going to need it. This should not be too hard; we are in South Dakota.

Second, do not be afraid to look like a creeper. The residents know that this is a college town, and they expect you to go shopping through their garbage.

For my third tip, I would advise you to not limit yourself to a particular neighborhood. Feel free to explore places you have never been before, and remember not to limit yourself to the “rich” part of town. The people who live here do have some cash, but because of that, they have the resources to buy nice things that do not break very often, so the finds may be few. When you do find them, though, you may have hit the jackpot.

Fourth, do not just skim the top of the pile. What you’re looking for may just be buried under that vacuum cleaner and chair with two legs. And always remember: if you pick it up and it turns out to be crap, you can always put it back out on the curb next year.

There are also some very important lessons you can learn from this experience. These things not only relate to garbage week but also to life. The first of these is that you can never have too many couches and recliners. Again referencing my house, I have five couches and three recliners. The second life lesson is, if you can smell it from the car and it smells bad, do not touch it. Three, very few problems cannot be solved with duct tape and Febreze.

The final life lesson may be cliché but is very true: you cannot judge a book – or table, or chair or grill – by its cover. Just because it was tossed on the side of the road does not mean that it has lost its value. It has just gained a new value, and with the lessons and memories you gain through garbage week, it can truly make your finds priceless.

The illusive Pub Crawl: minors dream about it, those of age brag about it and everyone has heard stories about it. Officially, it is known as St. Patrick’s Day Pub Parade.

As an “of-age” newbie, I have not personally experienced Pub Crawl for myself, but I have experienced the aftermath, and boy have I heard some stories.

There is something about an early-afternoon drinking binge that seems so entirely college. I mean, scores of drunk college students stumbling from bar to bar seeing how many beers they are able to chug before throwing up or passing out. This is the stuff of college lore, so eloquently captured in those great cinematic feats of American Pie and Van Wilder. But really, can all of this drunken debauchery live up to all of the hype?

Attempting to answer this question, I pulled out my notebook and started talking to people. This task, however, proved harder than it would seem. Nearly all of my informants provided me with one common answer: “Honestly, I don’t really remember too much of it, but it looked like I had fun in the 98 pictures that I took.”

I refused to give in to this cop-out of an answer and pushed on. As I trudged through their beer-hazed memories, I began to piece together stories so absurd, so shocking and so graphic that I’m not even sure if they are fit to print, but I’m going to tell you about them anyway.

I heard tales of random make-outs, vomit, and then more random make-outs, dancing on tables, the overwhelming desire to lie down for a rest in the middle of the street, picking up and eating pizza off of the beer- and mud-saturated ground and eventually passing out before the sun went down.

As unsettling as these accounts may seem, there was an underlying theme to each conversation that I had with these past pub crawlers. It is simply that of college students joining together for an afternoon of fun and camaraderie. However, there was one involving a goat, a trampoline and a kiddy pool full of Jell-O, but that is a whole other column.

I feel that my investigations into the lore of Pub Crawl uncovered a number of things. First, don’t eat anything off of the ground; second, leave your camera at home; and third, be sure to bring a pack of gum along so you can freshen up for your next random make-out. As for living up to the hype, I guess that I will just have to wait and see for myself.

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Scores of people dusted off their cowboy hats, polished their boots and practiced their jitterbugging moves for the Johnny Holm concert at the Swiftel on Feb 21.

Before going on stage, Holm walked through the crowd of people waiting for the sound check to get finished. Once the band was warmed up, he joined them on stage and kicked off the show with an up-beat cover that drew the dancing droves to the stage.

“They sound good,” said Ashton Chavez, a freshman pre-nursing major.

Holm was born in Brainerd, Minn., and has been performing for the past 30 years. The band has a large following in the upper Midwest, where they are widely known for playing gigs including county fairs and street dances. The band has appeared in Brookings a number of times in past years. According to the official Johnny Holm’s Band Web site, the band is one of the most widely known and well-traveled bands in America.

“We play a large variety of music. Around this area people like country and hard rock,” said Holm.

The songs they covered ranged from Chris LeDoux to Journey and reached into the country, hard rock and classic rock genres. The band played for three hours, nearly non-stop, only breaking long enough for the parched dancers to down a Bud Light or two before beginning another set.

According to his Web site, Johnny Holm surrounds himself with the finest musicians. Besides Johnny Holm, the band also consists of Jordan Holm, vocals and guitar, John Scalia (guitar and vocals), Shaun Mitzel (guitar and vocals), Mark Hoyt (keyboards and vocals) and Scott Pearson (drums and vocals). Pearson is the oldest member; he joined in Nov. 1992. Mitzel, Scalia and Jordan Holm all joined in 2006. The newest member, Hoyt, joined in January 2008.

The Johnny Holm Band continues to draw and entertain crowds as was evident by Thursday’s turnout.

“My parents used to listen to him, and he’s still cool,” said Ann Lanoue, a senior agriculture education major.

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