The award, which Denny Quigley and his son, Gary, received during a national awards ceremony at the Marriott City Center in downtown Raleigh, N.C., recognized the Quigleys’ exceptionally high levels of customer service, training, operational excellence, national directory ratings and community service. The Quigleys also received the award in 2015, 2014 and 2011.
Gary Quigley said the awards reflect his family’s consistent efforts to improve the camping experiences they provide for their guests. “We attempt to do better at every single part of our business every year,” he said.
The Quigley family acquired the former Kozy Rest Kampground in Butler County in 2000 and joined the Jellystone Park franchise network in 2011 after making numerous improvements.
They have since continued to make additional improvements, including a new pavilion, a new playground, a mining sluice, a jumping pillow, a jump pad, a new fire truck, new train, and numerous luxury cabins.
Quigley said the improvements reflect the efforts of their Jellystone Park staff, which has grown to 40 during the peak summer season.
“Our staff takes as much ownership in offering a great experience and in winning the award as we do. They really take ownership and try to make people happy and win the award each year,” Quigley said, adding that his family planned to provide each staff member with a jacket with a Park of the Year Award Winner emblem.
During the upcoming winter months, the Quigleys’ maintenance staff will be upgrading more RV sites to 50 amp service. “We upgrade about 15 to 25 sites to 50 amp service each year,” Gary Quigley said. Fifty amp service is preferred by campers with the largest RVs who typically have lots of appliances and other electronic devices inside their vehicles.
New amenities for 2018 will include a gaga ball pit, RC tracks and laser tag. “We are building a unique laser tag battlefield in the woods,” Quigley said, adding, “It will be a live action gaming experience that brings the kids video games to life.”
The Quigleys will also have four new rental cabins and a one-acre fishing pond that’s 12 feet deep when the park reopens in mid-April.
The Jellystone Park at Kozy Rest currently has 84 seasonal and 79 transient RV sites as well as 14 cabins and two yurts. The park has an additional 17 acres that could be developed in the future.
Of course, the most unique attractions at Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park at Kozy Resort are Yogi Bear™ and Boo Boo™, and children love to interact with them. Jellystone Parks are also famous for providing fun, family activities and themed weekends that include everything from crafts and games to wagon rides.
Themed weekend activities, which typically run from April through October, include a chocolate themed weekend with a chocolate Slip N Slide, chocolate finger painting and candy bar bingo; a dinosaur themed weekend with dinosaur crafts, a dinosaur scavenger hunt and a reptile show; and Christmas in July weekends with campsite decorating contests, campsite caroling, as well as cookie and ornament making activities. The increasingly popular Halloween themed weekends include costume and campsite decorating contests and trick or treating activities.
The Jellystone Park at Kozy Rest also has a haunted pavilion and a haunted maze. “The maze that they walk through is the length of three football fields,” Quigley said.
The park’s five Halloween themed weekends, which also include campsite and cabin decorating contests, trick or treating, a costume dance, and a pumpkin fun weekend sell out months in advance.
“We are going to add two Zombie Hunt Halloween themed weekends next year to keep up with demand,” Quigley said. “People just love it. It fills the park.”
For more information about Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park at Kozy Rest, please visit https://pittsburghjellystone.com.
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