While they work in an American-owned resort beyond the United States’ borders, the Balliets’ forty-hour week is filled similar to those of activity directors in numerous resorts.

“We coordinate all the activities in the park,” Steve says. “One of the biggest tasks involves the holiday meals—Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s, Mardi Gras, and St. Patrick’s Day.”

While Steve and Kathy plan the meals, set up the budget, coordinate the preparations, and purchase the food, particular volunteers are in charge of each occasion. “These volunteers work under us,” Steve says. “Kathy and I help prepare and serve the meals, and clean up afterward. We are involved in all aspects of each activity, although we could not do the work without the capable hands of many volunteers. But we’d never ask anyone to do a job that we wouldn’t roll up our sleeves and do, too.”

Kathy interjects that each special dinner requires about four full days of preparation. ”Our work week exceeds 40 hours during those special holiday times,” she adds. “We try to purchase locally everything we can for our activities, but often we have to make a shopping trip into Yuma, Arizona, which takes a full day and adds about ten hours to our week.”

Steve and Kathy make up the schedule for all activities and produce a weekly newsletter, which is handed out to each visitor in the park. A volunteer heads up each area of activity, although as coordinators, the Balliets are generally present and participating.

“For instance, a volunteer coordinates the outdoor games such as horseshoes, water volleyball, shuffleboard, and games with names like ‘Snakes and Ladders’ and ‘Holey Board,’” Steve says.

“When we took this job, we adopted as our mission that everybody could take part in everything,” he continues, noting that as a former elementary physical education teacher, he is trained to always have a goal. “For example, some people might not try shuffleboard because they have never played. We try to pair that novice with an experienced player, accomplishing two things—a new person learns the game and two people get better acquainted.”

He points out that another volunteer is in charge of indoor activities such as card games and tournaments. “Kathy and I oversee the exercise programs, which include a daily session with a walking tape and pool aerobics,” he says.

Kathy says that due to laws in Mexico restricting any Americans from making a profit on crafts or other items without a license, she typically waits for crafts people to contact her about holding classes. “I always try to be present when someone presents a session,” she says, explaining that participation has to be limited to the cost of making the item. “For example, shells are abundant here on El Golfo’s beaches, so someone, on occasion, has taught others how to create different items from the shells.” Yet another volunteer coordinates the park’s special events, including a Poker Run, an organized trip down the beach on ATVs and in four-wheel drive vehicles. Special markers designate the route. The Wednesday night steamed clam dinner, ice cream socials, Sunday night hamburgers, a dart tournament, and a Tailgate Party prior to football bowl games round out other special events.

Steve notes that the dart games started when a master player visited the park. “However, no one wanted to play against the man because he always won,’’ Steve goes on. “We applied the pairing strategy to this game. There are always people in the park who are willing to teach someone else. It’s great to see one person coaching another. The dart games have evolved into regular competitions and tournaments.

“We started out giving prizes such as a free breakfast in the club house or a free ice cream at the socials, but Kathy and I devised a simpler system of charging fifty cents or a dollar for participation, then dividing the ‘pot’ between the winners. No one has to pay to play, but those who do not pay forfeit the prize if they are winners.”

Twice weekly, the park schedules Karaoke Night, which is under the Balliets’ coordination, but is hosted by two other individuals. At this event and at special dinners raffle tickets are sold and prizes awarded several times during the evening. More than half the money collected goes into prizes; the other half into an activity fund that purchases special items for the park.

Kathy adds that other volunteers take blood pressure checks, facilitate e-mail, and give orientations to the park and the town of El Golfo. One individual walks newcomers into town for lunch, and points out grocery stores, the bakery, and pharmacy. In the CRA system, members can stay two weeks in any park, but must stay out a week before returning. Volunteers at El Golfo receive their “week out” as compensation, enabling some members to stay as long as five winter months at the resort.

“Additionally, we have people knocking on our door, asking to get into the equipment room or do we have this or that supply,” Kathy says. “During a holiday week, such as Christmas and New Year’s, we are either on-call or running constantly. But without that kind or coordination, nothing would work.”

She relates that one chore arose unexpectedly. For a New Year’s Dinner, the park’s kitchen oven could not accommodate the number of baked potatoes needed. Kathy asked staff members and several volunteers to each bake about 20 potatoes. Thinking ahead that the potatoes should be uniform in size to bake in separate ovens, she spent time sorting the spuds according to size.

“Basically, in every thing that goes on in the park, except for maintenance, Kathy and I are involved,” Steve adds. ”Being the activity coordinators is a lot of work, but we’re not the type to run up and down the beach on our ATV every day, although we’d like to go now and then!”

They both laugh when describing their first venture as full-timers to a Wisconsin Escapade, sponsored by the organization, Escapees. “We think we had: WE WILL BE IN CHARGE stamped on our foreheads,” Kathy says. “As newcomers, they wanted us to be president of the Wisconsin chapter of Escapees!”

Rather than the “stamp” they envision on their heads, Steve and Kathy readily exude good organization skills, a strong work ethic, and a noticeable spontaneity in all they encounter, qualities that describe successful activity directors in any park setting.

Both skilled in working with people from their jobs in education, Steve as a teacher and Kathy as support staff for special needs children, they work and play hard. Spending half their year in Mexico, they have made themselves an integral part of the El Golfo community, becoming accepted members of certain Mexican families.

“We have acclimated to what we have available in Mexico,” Kathy says. “And with the exception of a few unavailable food items and the once-a-week mail, we could live here year round.”

She recalls her first introduction to a Mexican friend, who is a baker. She needed some long loaves of bread for a special dinner at the resort. Through an interpreter, she worked on the recipe with this young man. She notes that his primary limitation was poor yeast, which she now supplies. Today, the local baker makes loaves of bread, not only for special dinners, but for purchase by the park’s residents.

Neither Steve nor Kathy speak Spanish, yet, they communicate. The first time Kathy needed 100 buns for a special event, she clicked off five fingers, saying “veinte,” meaning twenty.

“Leaving Mexico in the spring is as hard as leaving our children and grandchildren in the United States each fall,” Kathy says. “As we drive out of the little town, friends line the street and wave. It’s a teary time.”

Steve adds, “It’s been our goal that people visiting El Golfo Resort would leave with more friends than they had when they came. That has been truer for us than anyone else.”