The Hooters system employs over 25,000 people - over 15,000 of which
are Hooters Girls. Two of the owners, Dave "Lags" Lageschulte and Dale
"Champ" Regnier, came along with the girls to discover Grenada.
Calendar publishers Charles ( Chuck ) Melcher and HollyDeSchryver
explained that every year different girls are selected to travel to
exotic locations for a photo shoot.
Each calendar contains about 200 pictures and over 400.000 calendars are sold worldwide.
Said Chuck: "The girls in our calendar aren't models from New York.
You can actually meet every girl in person at a Hooters Restaurant
around the world. It's hard to believe, but EVERY girl in the calendar
must be a Hooters waitress, and she may actually be the girl next door
to you."
"The process for selecting the girls is simple, yet time consuming.
First, Hooters Girls submit photos of themselves to the Hooters
Calendar Photo Crew for consideration. Several girls are then selected
from each Hooters market for a professional shoot, sometimes in their
local area or state; oftentimes in fun locations like Aspen, Las Vegas,
or the Caribbean. "It's a tough job," Vollmer comments, "But somebody
has to do it. Might as well be me!"
Models enjoy Grenadian waters
After all the photo sessions have taken place, Vollmer and the Hooters
Calendar Photo Crew pore over the tens of thousands of photos culled
from these shoots and then begin the arduous task of narrowing down the
photos of the girls. Each girl is represented by a few of her best
shots and then these are reviewed at the annual Photo Selection
Convention.
Generally held at the end of July, the photo selection process includes
Hooters owners, franchisee groups, marketing associates and special
celebrity guests, who all participate in the process of whittling down
the thousands of photos to the 180 needed for the calendar. The Girls
selected then enjoy a year of celebrity, traveling around, appearing on
radio and television programs, doing calendar signings and generally
just enjoying being recognized as some of the best looking women in the
world!"
Aboard ShadowFax
The photo crew and models have already been to St.Maarten twice where
the company Yacht Assistance owned by Jan Roosens, arranged locations
and facilities. Yacht Assistance works together in Grenada with Claire
Budhlall and Roger Spronk's company, "Spronk's Provisioning". They
have been assisting with the photo shoot in Grenada during a full week
and the Hooters crew was extremely happy with their job.
Says Holly DeSchryver from Hooters Calendar: "Claire did an amazing job.
Lags and Champ both enjoyed their excursion with the models on
Shadowfax. Champ said it was his best day here.
"This was a big trip for me to plan, and I want to thank both companies
so much for helping me put together a trip that everyone enjoyed."
Henry's Safari provided some tours and excursions and the group has also visited the Seven Sister waterfalls.
Pictures for the calendar were taken at the Beach House, Aquarium, La
Luna, on board the catamaran Shadowfax and other places in Grenada. A
planned shoot at the Westerhall Rum property had to be canceled due to
lack of time but Hooters will most probably return to Grenada in the
near future.
Business owners agreed that this was again another bit of good publicity for Grenada.
Apart from the appearance in the calendar, several model pictures and
location photographs will also be published on the web site so
thousands of Americans and people around the world will get to know the
beauty of the spice Island Grenada.
