Starved Rock Country Magazine - Winter 2021

| M ade In S RC |

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BOUTIQUE & A BAR Longtime

tourism experts reveal their personal favorites in Starved Rock Country Story by Charles Stanley Photos by Tom Sistak

28 | Winter 2021 • Starved Rock Country

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hen Sandy Burns and Donna Nordstrom tell a tourist where to go, they typically get a thank-you in response.

Burns and Nordstrom are the tourism coordinators who have for the past 10 years shared the job of greeting and directing visitors at the Heritage Corridor Visitor Center in Utica.

Burns has been in the tourism business longer than Nordstrom.

She grew up in Grand Ridge, south of Ottawa, and moved to Ottawa when she got married.

Burns got her start with the

Heritage Corridor Convention & Visitors Bureau 27 years ago and staffed the early storefront offices in Ottawa. The first was comprised of a desk and single pamphlet rack in a space she shared with a barbershop.

Nordstrom grew up in the suburbs of St. Paul, Minnesota, and moved to Ottawa in 1999. She worked part-time at the Ottawa Visitors Center before joining the Heritage Corridor CVB. “It’s a truly enjoyable job and every day is different,” Nordstrom says. “Most of the people we deal with are on vacation, so they’re really very happy.”