 The Good Witch's Bakery (AKA The Gingerbread Bakery) as it looked when Santa's Village in Scotts Valley opened Santa’s Village, my favorite theme park in the entire world, closed the year I was born. This minor inconvenience however didn’t stop me from spending a good deal of my life obsessing over it, tracking down stories, and looking for signs of life, no matter how impossible. I’m not your normal theme park fan; I go deep into stories and personal histories collecting forgotten memories, pictures, and trinkets from independent parks, many of which no longer exist. Santa’s Village has always been at the center of my curiosity. Frontier Village of San Jose and The Lost World, of Scotts Valley have also been on my list of curiosities, but if I had to pick one to bring back, it will always be Santa’s Village. Now, on a recent Friday in May, after years of waiting, I am happy to report that I finally ventured into the park’s Welcome House and spent a weekend in the actual Santa’s Village. Not only did I visit, I now work for the park, offering my public relations and creative services, and I couldn’t be happier about it.  In front of Santa's House at the thriving SkyPark at Santa's Village in the San Bernardino Mountains.  Santa's Village, as it once looked, from Highway 17 in California. As long as I can remember, I’ve been obsessed with a theme park that now, only exists in memory. Before I had words to describe it, I saw its ghost, every time my parents drove home. The abandoned relic with twenty-foot candy canes and giant colorful concrete mushrooms waited, faded and forgotten, to beckon travelers to an empty Welcome House and a hidden enchanted forest beyond. But the cars no longer stopped as they sped along the highway through the Santa Cruz mountains and the children's laughter that once encompassed the park gave way to a lonely wind. Not everyone grows up next door to an abandoned winter-themed amusement park. As far as I was concerned, I was one of the luckiest kids in the world. I like to think that was part of the founder’s dream; for more kids to live near such a park. Glenn Holland envisioned Santa’s Village after growing up during the Great Depression. He never really had a childhood and he made up for lost time. I think the founder must have known that such a place changes children’s lives for the better. I know it changed mine.  The Welcome House as it looked when the park opened in 1958. The first Santa’s Village park opened in the 1950’s. It was the first franchised theme park in the United States. For decades, there were three nearly identical parks across the country and more planned. But baby boomers grew up, gas prices soared, and road trips became less common. The Santa’s Village corporation dissolved in the late 1970’s around the time I was born.  "Beyond the Trees," after the park closed, circa 1990. The fact that my town’s park had closed did not stop my curiosity. I wanted to know what was just out of sight, behind the Welcome House, behind the trees. I wanted to know what it was like to spend a day at Santa’s Village in its heyday. I collected newspaper clippings, souvenirs, and stories from locals who remembered the park. My elementary school was lucky enough to inherit three of the concrete mushrooms which strengthened my resolve to salvage whatever was left. By fourth grade, I had commissioned my friends to write the city to reopen the park. The city politely but promptly refused. Yet, every night, as if by some lingering theme park magic, the lights still came on outside the Welcome House, and even in its dilapidated state, it was still magical.  The themed Standard Gas Station next to Santa's Village Then, one night on the way home, an orange glow filled the sky. Flames had engulfed the Welcome House and the nearby reindeer-topped gas station, which had managed to survive for many years. I watched in horror as the fire consumed the beacon I had always looked to. The white roof-reindeer melted, one by one, until the last of them was gone and the building was a shell of what it had been. The lights never came on again.
My park is gone forever, but its story is far from over. It lives on, every day, in the surrogate memories I have made of it. I use those memories as a catalyst to fuel my creative work and bring impossible things to life.  The remains of the last concrete mushroom, on the site of what is now a housing development. UPDATE: Since writing this post, I am happy to announce that I am now the Public Relations Director for SkyPark at Santa's Village in the San Bernardino Mountains in Southern California, (the first of the three Santa's Villages). The full story is here.
For more on the history of Santa's Village visit: www.santasvillage.net/santas.village.scotts.valley.html To join the community of memory-makers, visit: www.facebook.com/groups/59858968506/  "People trust Google Nest with their lives. The fact that Google, the third largest tech company in the world (only behind Apple and Microsoft), is alerting Nest customers about replacing their life-saving products one to two years before they actually expire, is unconscionable. Especially during a pandemic, when so many working-class Americans are unemployed, trying to be prudent about what little money they might have left to spend."
 You’re busy running a startup. You don’t have a communications “team” of 50 people to help you prepare for conversations with the press. You personally don’t have time for an intensive 2 week course on media training. What you DO have is an interview or media opportunity in two days that you’re scared to death about.
Fear not. Here’s what you need to know to get started. 1. Know The Show Familiarize yourself with the show or venue you’re going to be on. Do your homework. If it’s a blog, read previous articles. If it’s a TV show, watch previous episodes. If it’s a podcast, or radio show, listen to a few episodes. If it’s available, read over the list of episode titles and guests over the last few months. Try and get a sense of why the show exists and what it’s about.  Guest Post by By Amanda Plank, Founder of Merch Minion
With the recent temporary shutdown of many small businesses and startups during the COVID-19 pandemic, many financial relief programs are now available. The difficulty is knowing what’s out there, and how to navigate a system that, frankly, was never meant to deal with this kind of pressure. Fear not. It is possible, with a lot of patience and persistence to get help. Here’s what you need to know.  No product sells itself without help–not even in the best of times. So how is your business supposed to market itself when, as they say in Hamilton, “the world turned upside down?”
On the marketing and PR front, a lot has changed. Ads from “the before time” featuring large crowds or one-on-one interactions can be downright triggering. Regular marketing and PR cycles have been disrupted, major events have been canceled, and seasonal trends that worked last year just don’t make sense now. On the homefront, Americans face problems that keep people up at night. More people are working from home, if they’re lucky enough to still have a job. Kids are “learning from home,” putting extra strain on parents and caregivers. Unemployment in the United States is at a historic high. Many have lost loved ones. Many are wondering how they’re going to get through this time. So what’s a marketer to do? It doesn’t seem right to try to get people jazzed about your product when the world is so very different than it was mere months ago. Fortunately, there are some simple guidelines to help you keep your company’s brand as stable as possible, despite this most unusual and difficult time.  We live in a golden age of video conferencing on national TV news shows, especially with social distancing protocols. News shows are relying on remote experts now more than ever. This is a great opportunity for your brand to speak to key issues that people care about. But not all video conferencing call-in interviews are created equal. Unless you’re a first responder calling in from a hospital or emergency location, your remote video interview should look as professional as possible. Here are some simple tips to help you look professional and be taken seriously.  CES represents a great opportunity for brands, but for startups, it can also be overwhelming. Here’s how to make the most of your CES attendance.
 To say that PR and the media has changed in the last decade is an understatement. We’ve gone from a 24-hr news cycle to a multi-platform, 24/7, saturated media culture with up-to-the minute headlines that change with the slightest of input.
So what’s a startup to do? Can you still make headlines? What’s changed and what’s still the same? The answers are in the new book; Snow Tires for Startups: How to Get PR Traction. Here are three of the tried and true takeaways from the book that your startup needs to know about PR today.  As a new entrepreneur, you’ve been building your startup for months, and now you’re ready to start pitching to the venture capital community. You may be ready, but is your pitch deck? Are you sure you have the right elements to attract a VC?
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AuthorJennifer L. Jacobson is a creator and communications strategist who helps brands advance in growing industries. Her clients have been on The View, The Today Show, in TIME Magazine’s best site of the year, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Popular Science, Scientific American, USA Today, and thousands more. 
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Check Out Jennifer's New PR Book!Snow Tires for Startups: How to Get PR Traction, is a practical guide for startups and growing brands who want to get the most out of their PR. If you already have a PR firm, this book will help you get the most out of your them and streamline your brand's communications. If you're the solo rockstar doing PR on your own, this book will teach you the ins and outs of public relations from a startup expert with two decades of experience.
Maximize the work you’re already doing and do it right the first time. This book will help you think like a storyteller and learn to weave your brand into a larger narrative that puts you in the history books. Snow Tires for Startups picks up where other PR books leave off, helping you navigate the world for PR and get the positive attention you need to move your brand forward. |
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3 Ways Big PR Firms Slow Down StartupsDo big global PR firms work for startups? The siren song of larger, global PR firms are tempting to many, but there are good reasons startups should avoid them. You can do better than a big firm. Here’s why.
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Jacobson Communication is a Pacific Northwest boutique public relations & creative firm that helps startups, emerging brands, theme parks, and nonprofits get the attention needed to drive positive brand engagement. From sales, to biz dev, to company enrichment, you'll be surprised what better communications can do for your brand.
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