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| Pyrotechnics is the perfect hobby for Karen Thurman, who’s something of a firecracker herself. |
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| Karen Thurman, left, dressed in a giant conch shell costume, dances with Tom Luna at a Conch Republic Hurricane Survivors Party on Duval Street. Photo by Mark Elias. |
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| Karen Thurman is director of sales and marketing for the Doubletree Grand Key Resort. |
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| Peter Anderson, left, and Karen Thurman, right, toot their conch shells as they welcome passengers to Key West, Fla., on the inaugural Atlanta-to-Key West Delta Connection flight. Photo by Roberto Rodriguez/Florida Keys News Bureau. |
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Karen Thurman, an Oklahoma native, became a resident of the Conch Republic in the same way so many other Key Westers have — she came to visit a friend, fell in love with island life and stayed permanently.“I had a job offer in Fort Lauderdale and moved there sight unseen. I lasted six weeks and realized I didn’t belong there, so I went to Key West for the weekend to visit a friend who worked at Fast Buck Freddie’s,” says Thurman, referring to the island city’s landmark boutique department store.It was love at first sight.“I went back Monday and quit my job and moved to Key West five days later, with no employment,” she says.Known for her upbeat personality and offbeat sense of fun, Thurman is now director of sales and marketing at Key West’s Doubletree Grand Key Resort.Her work in the hospitality industry dates back to the 1980s in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, when she decided to leave her job as an emergency medical technician and apply for a bartending job at Frenchman’s Reef Resort.“They told me I was both overqualified and underqualified, so they made me a management trainee,” she reports with typical self-deprecating humor.Always ready for a challenge, when she moved to Key West Thurman explored nonhospitality professions, selling timeshares, managing a travel agency and owning and operating a scooter rental business. But like Key West, the hotel business had gotten into her blood.She returned to the hospitality industry as director of sales for the island’s Econo Lodge and Fairfield Inn. During that time she also established her own marketing business, Florida Keys Cooperative, and worked with the Hemingway Days Festival, Cuban American Heritage Festival and several other clients throughout the Keys.The Keys Cooperative work led to her current job.“Doubletree Grand Key Resort started as a co-op client during their construction stage,” she says. “It became apparent they needed full–time help, so I came aboard.”Thurman found a sense of community and camaraderie at the Grand Key, just as she had in Key West itself. She calls the city the perfect combination of island living and stateside conveniences.“It was a great place to raise a child,” says the mother of a now-grown daughter. “Key West is really a small and fairly conservative town — everyone watches out for everyone else’s kids and people in general just watch out for each other.”She’s also a great fan of the island’s diverse population and all-welcoming atmosphere.“It’s the one place in the world where my mother, daughter, gay brother and dog can all go out for an evening and have a great time together,” she says.Thurman’s hospitality career and hospitable nature have led her into some fairly unusual situations. For example, she has costumed herself as an oversized conch shell, the symbol of the Florida Keys, to greet attendees at trade shows and even appear on the Weather Channel.Thurman also finds time to be a pyrotechnics expert. Through volunteer work with Key West’s Rotary Club, she first assisted with Rotary-sponsored holiday fireworks displays and ultimately became a licensed pyrotechnician. Over the years she has used her skills to direct large- and small-scale holiday and special-event fireworks extravaganzas.In fact, pyrotechnics is the perfect hobby for Karen Thurman, who’s something of a firecracker herself. Her passion for the hospitality industry and Key West island life shine as brightly as the sparklers she sends skyward. |
