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Intro:
A production of Pioneer Utility Resources.

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StoryConnect, helping communicators discover ideas to shape
their stories and connect with their customers.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
How to make a splash with a Hydromania Summer Science Camp.

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That's what we'll be talking about on this episode of "The
StoryConnect Podcast." Hi, I'm your host, Megan McKoy-Noe, one of

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the storytellers here at Pioneer Utility Resources, and I am
joined by Weston Putman.

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He is the manager of public relations at Umatilla Electric
Cooperative in beautiful Oregon.

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I have driven by y'all's amazing.

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Weston Putman:
It's beautiful.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
It's so pretty out there.

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Weston Putman:
Thank you.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
And you are adding some color to the scenery, I should say, with
this program.

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So, Weston, thank you so much for joining me today.

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We are recording live at the Northwest Public Power
Association's NIC Conference, Northwest Innovations and

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Communications, I believe, and you're on the committee.

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So thank you for everything you do.

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Weston Putman:
Well, thank you.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
To get these ideas together.

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Weston Putman:
And thank you for having me.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
Weston. Of course, I'm excited because I have to tell you, I
geeked out when I heard about y'all's camp.

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And then when I heard you were going to be here, it just seems
like the perfect time to talk about this.

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Weston Putman:
Absolutely. It is a wonderful camp.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
Summer camps. I mean, you're speaking my love language as a mom.

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So if you hear any background noise, y'all, it is ambiance.

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We're setting the mood for learning and mashup of ideas here at
the NIC in Idaho.

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So Hydromania, when I first heard about it, I mean, it could be
a lot of different things.

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It sounds like it could be maybe a music festival in the Gorge
or some new magazine that's popping out for kids.

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Weston Putman:
And I do think Hydromania, and I don't know where it is, but I
think it's also a water park.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
Of course it is.

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Weston Putman:
So that also could be what it is.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
Does anyone show up for the camp thinking they're going to be at
the waterpark?

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Weston Putman:
Fortunately, no, not that I've heard.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
Okay, good. There's always room or time for that to happen, but
still.

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But no, it's not.

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It's not a park or a group.

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It is this amazing summer camp that y'all have for fourth and
fifth graders, which is a fantastic

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age to reach with your story.

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And this is not a new idea.

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So talk to me about where this idea came from and why it works.

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Weston Putman:
Yeah. So thank you again for having me on.

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Hydromania is one of our most, you know, passionate projects
that we have at Umatilla Electric.

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I do want to give kudos right from the bat to a woman on our
team named Amy Callan, who leads all of our youth activities.

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She is so passionate about Hydromania.

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So before I even begin, I just want to give kudos there.

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To my knowledge, I've only been at Umatilla Electric for four
years, or upcoming I'm four years.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
It feels like longer, sir.

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Weston Putman:
But well, thank you.

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But Hydromania to my knowledge, we just celebrated our 25 year
anniversary of Hydromania.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
Wait, did you have camp patches to celebrate?

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Weston Putman:
That's a wonderful idea. No, I know, but we did just celebrate 25
years and staff at the time, I must have had this idea to

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be able to do this camp, for it was initially fifth graders.

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We branched out to fourth graders, and so we initially had just
one grade.

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And to be able to do a what it is now a summer science camp to
where, as you mentioned, they get to learn about science,

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engineering, agriculture in the field.

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They get to visit farms.

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They get to visit processing plants, food processing plants
around our area.

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And so we've been doing it for 25 years.

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And again, it must have just been an idea from staff at that
time.

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And we've just been able to do it over and over again with, of
course, new ideas, new events, new new field tours for the

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children. So it's just a wonderful program.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
Well, and you mentioned some of the activities, you know, it's 
blend science, water information and education,

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environment education, energy education.

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But let's break it down.

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What kind of activities are they doing at the camp?

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Weston Putman:
Yeah. So we try to split it to where they're doing kind of 50/50
of in-person activities within a classroom, and then 50% of field

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tours. So some of the activities for this past year, they got to
make their own paper.

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So they got paper, and they were able to use those boxes that
you can sift water through and press it and make your own paper.

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They get to do where you make the contraptions with like straws.

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There's paper, rubber bands, and you make the contraption that
protects eggs.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
Wait, that protects eggs?

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Weston Putman:
Yes.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
Are you going to throw the eggs somewhere?

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Is this like, because I've seen that with the egg drop.

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Weston Putman:
So this. If there's no other way to tell it, this is a perfect
explanation of why this is a cooperative summer science camp.

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So with this event, we always bring a lineman to come in with a
bucket truck.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
Yes.

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Weston Putman:
And the kids have an opportunity to build some sort of
contraption.

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It's up to them how they want to build it, but they're supposed
to engineer it to be able to protect the egg from a fall from a

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bucket truck.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
Yes.

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Weston Putman:
That's an activity that they start in the classroom, and then
they come out, and they are able to test their contraption and

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how it works.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
Can they use parachutes?

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Weston Putman:
Some of them try, some of them try.

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Sometimes they don't always do what they need to do.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
Who cleans up after the egg drop?

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Weston Putman:
We do. Staff.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
I'm sorry.

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Weston Putman:
Okay, so we do have counselors and directors as part of it too.

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Some of them are often, you know, perhaps college students who
are home for the summer and able to learn a little more

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experience there. So they do a wonderful job.

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And then on the flip side, the tours, you know, we have a lot of
large farms in the area and all of them are so open

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to bringing the kids on and giving them tours of the farm and
their own facilities.

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We have a lot of large food processing plants, and they get to
go have tours of the whole line, like from start to finish, from

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like beginning to shipping out the door.

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They get to view those.

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For now, i just because now I'm hungry.

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What kind of food?

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Potato processing is probably one of our biggest ones.

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Yeah. Yeah.

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I am a huge fan of potatoes.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
It's just perfect timing in Boise.

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If you're watching the video of this, we have a potato that we've
been throwing around the conference.

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If I hit you with a potato, I apologize.

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Weston Putman:
Good thing you can't hit the audience.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
Right? I know. I can't hit anyone watching on the video.

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But yeah.

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So potato processing, and then do y'all have?

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You have a lot of other things going on.

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Weston Putman:
Yeah. So we have a wonderful facility that our Puerto Mauro has
put in.

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It's called the Sage Center.

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And really what it is, is just a centralized location to
highlight almost all of our service territory, which is not just

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for UEC, but I meant more of all of eastern Oregon.

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So we, they're able to highlight the farming.

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They're able to highlight some of the industrial, some of the
food processing that we have.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
All of that sounds like learning about your community and really
getting rooted in the community.

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But it's called Hydromania.

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How do you add some water to this?

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Weston Putman:
Yeah. So and then, back into the classroom.

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They have classes, videos they have to take not so much tests,
but we do quiz them on what they learned about

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hydropower. And so they learned about hydropower, and the
resource it is for electric power in the northwest and across the

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country. So they do get exposure to that as well.

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So that's really where the name comes from.

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And of course, when you just say Hydromania every year, you're
just bolstering how important hydropower is to public power.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
Not that it's manic at all.

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Weston Putman:
We're trying to start them young. We're trying to start them at
fourth grade, and then they're just gonna have it the whole time.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
I love it. I love it. I mean, you have to start young.

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Weston Putman:
Right.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
If you want to tell your story and you keep telling it over and
over and over again.

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So this camp sounds amazing.

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I have seen pictures, which again, is why I was like, Weston, I
need to talk to you about this.

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It's just really exciting.

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And as I am the mom of a rising fourth grader, so I mean, the
value there is.

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Weston Putman:
You can move to Hermiston at any time.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
I appreciate that.

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I know she also loves watermelons, so it's a whole.

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I know, I know, it's a whole thing.

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Potatoes and watermelon.

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I mean, what more could you want.

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Weston Putman:
Right? It's a wonderful place to live.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
It's a wonderful place. So let's dig in.

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If anyone likes this idea, the idea behind The StoryConnect
Podcast is to tell folks about really cool ideas and then break

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it down for them.

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Weston Putman:
Right, right. Let's do it.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
How can you make this work for you?

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So let's dig into this.

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How many students can attend the camp?

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And its three weeks, right?

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Weston Putman:
Well, there's three, two-week long camps, so it's six weeks
total, three separate camps with three individual classes, if you

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will. So three.

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Yep. So each class is 25 to 30 students.

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They're together for two weeks.

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And then they're done. They go through the same thing.

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And then the second class does the same same setup, same
activities, same tours.

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But it's another 25 to 30 kids.

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So with the three camps you're looking anywhere from, we've had
75 kids.

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We've had close to 100 each year.

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And we fill it with ease every single year.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
I was going to say so it's in June and July, and I didn't realize
it was two weeks for each session.

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Weston Putman:
Yeah, and it goes in a little bit to August too sometimes.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
Oh my gosh. Okay. So when do you start promoting this?

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Weston Putman:
August for the following year.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
For the next year?

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Weston Putman:
Yep.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
Okay.

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Weston Putman:
So what we've done before in the past is our Umatilla County
Fair.

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It's a large fair in Eastern Oregon.

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What we've done is sponsor what is called a gate sponsorship.

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And so we've done that before.

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We didn't do it this past year, but we did it two years ago to
where any child ten and under gets in for free that day.

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And so we use that as an opportunity to why not use that to
educate about Hydromania.

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These kids are already going to be there.

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They're going to come because they're getting it for free.

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And so we've had sign in sheets there, and so we start promoting
it right there.

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And we participate in the Umatilla County Fair Parade every
year.

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And we do it obviously as Umatilla Electric.

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But staff and volunteers who are running the parade are all
wearing Hydromania shirts, and we toss out Hydromania shirts.

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We toss out Hydromania swag in the parade.

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So we already start pretty much as soon as the camp ends.

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We're already looking to fill for next year.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
But again, it's free.

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Weston Putman:
Yes.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
For two weeks.

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You have no idea how much it costs for.

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Well, you might, you might for summer camp at least where I am
in Georgia.

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It's expensive, and it fills up fast.

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Weston Putman:
I got a two year old, so I'm sure I'm going to find out soon.

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Yes.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
So it can be.

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It can be expensive.

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So I have to imagine you don't have to.

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It's not a hard sell, right?

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Like, how quickly does it fill up?

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Weston Putman:
Days. We've had it before where it's like a day or two because we
just put it on a form on our website.

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And people can go in there and submit all the information they
need to do.

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And we've had it where it's a day or two.

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There's been times where it takes a little bit longer, but I
would say you're never looking at more than a week or two to fill

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.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
Filled the year before?

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Weston Putman:
Well, so I guess we start getting interest in August, but we
really launch registration.

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Okay, that's a good point.

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So let me kind of redact.

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So in August we take like an interest form of who would be
interested.

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So we send them an email when it's officially launched.

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Yes. We officially officially launch probably anywhere from
March to April.

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So that is when we open registration.

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And then from there is when typically it's a day or two or even
a week.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
And is there I mean, it's a process because the interest is huge
for this program.

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So everyone can't come.

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You're limited to about 100 kids, give or take.

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So talk to me about the, you said there's an interest form, but
then you have to choose which students get to go.

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So part of the application is a 30 word essay, which my daughter
would have a lot of fun with, I'm sure.

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So tell me, what do you see with those essays?

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And why do kids say they want to attend?

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Weston Putman:
Right, and so with 30 words, you can imagine some of these kids
get pretty creative with what they do.

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But I think some of our most heartwarming or heartfelt essays
are, we often hear from kids that an older brother or an older

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sister got to go to Hydromania, and ever since then they've been
wanting to go to it.

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Or then you get even a little bit deeper where we hear from
students or campers who, you know, state that they've never

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gotten to do something like this, and this is something that
they've really wanted to do.

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So you just you're able to, when you read those essays, kind of
see and understand what students or campers who truly want

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to be there and potentially those who you know may be doing it
just for whatever reason.

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And so we.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
Because their mom asked them to?

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Weston Putman:
Maybe.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
Yes, yes.

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Weston Putman:
And so we really try to focus on the ones that truly want to be
there and truly want to learn.

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And I think when you just read those heartfelt and heartwarming
essays, it's pretty easy to find those.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
Very, very exciting.

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And a 30 word essay is an interesting length to try to limit them
to their story.

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That's really cool.

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Weston Putman:
And then you you asked, how we limit it.

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So we also because we want every student to have an opportunity
to try to do it, and it's fourth and fifth grade.

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We do prioritize that it's students who have not gone before.

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So if you're a fourth grader and are registering fifth grade,
you can register.

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You'll just be waitlisted until there's no one else.

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Like until you're able to fill in.

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And we often get kids who do come back, but we also want to open
the door for a student or camper who hadn't had the opportunity

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the year before.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
Yeah, no, that makes complete sense.

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Now, as part of this, talk to me about the logistics for
Umatilla, because

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you've got the counselors, and I've seen you post job openings
for the counselors earlier in the year, and you look through

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social media and I'm sure other community groups to find people.

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So you've got several staff members that just focus on this.

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How much does this cost for y'all to run?

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Weston Putman:
So we do.

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So we do pay the salary and labor for the director and
counselors.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
How many people are that?

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Weston Putman:
You're looking at 4 to 5 counselors in a director, and these are
typically, even the director is typically college students.

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And what we try to or who are going to college right now and are
back for the summer.

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And what we typically try to find are students or community
members who are going to be wanting to do Hydromania for a long

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time, because it's hard.

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What we found in recent years is like, unfortunately, we've lost
a couple directors or lost a couple counselors, and it's hard to

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fill in and try to educate with such a short timeline.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
Right.

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Weston Putman:
And so what we found is we really want to try to have people stay
with us for 3 or 4 years and help build the program to what it

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is. And so we do pay the salaries.

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In terms of logistics of busing, food for the past two years at
least.

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I can't speak before that.

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We've had to pay, Umatilla Electric has had to pay, but two
years ago, one of our members and one of our wonderful community

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partners, AWS, which stands for Amazon Web Services, was a huge
donor.

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And so Umatilla Electric, did not have to pay for Hydromania,
and so we partnered with them on that.

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And then this year, the city of Hermiston, which is where
Umatilla Electric is headquartered, has also partnered with us.

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And so we're not.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
I feel like they were kind of saying, oh, this is a good idea.

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And we need to get on this.

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Weston Putman:
We hear it often from individual community members, but then
community partners that we, they see it as a wonderful program

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and are super wanting to give back, either to the campers or to
Umatilla Electric.

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And we are able just to partner with them.

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And so we're super grateful for that.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
Do you have to do co-branding?

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Weston Putman:
Sometimes. So the city of Hermiston, we did because they got a –
the reason we got the funding from them or how we got the funding

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from them, is they were successful in receiving a grant for tree
education or tree conservation through the city.

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And part of that was educating students or the youth on tree
education.

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And they already knew we did that in Hydromania.

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So they were like, if you just added a bit more to this, could
we help sponsor Hydromania?

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And we said,

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
Yes, please.

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Weston Putman:
Of course. Yeah, yeah.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
We will take that money.

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Thank you.

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Weston Putman:
Then Amazon Web Services was the same.

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So in our Ruralite magazine or on our website, we co-branded
with them, and it was.

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They are a great partner as well, so it was easy to do.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
I love that. It makes it even better because it's still your
program, and you've been doing it for a quarter of a

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century. And now you're getting community support.

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So it's not a huge burden on the members, because I could
imagine some folks would say, well, I don't want my member

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dollars paying for summer camp.

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Weston Putman:
Yeah, and to that point, they're very respectful about that, that
we, and we do it in a kind and professional way, obviously.

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But we do have some sensitive ownership to that.

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We've been doing it for 25 years.

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We feel like we want it to be our program, UEC's program.

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We've seen a lot of campers come through, so it's pretty special
to us.

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But you talked about how if someone was thinking about doing
this, so I want to talk about the cost before.

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You're looking, especially with bussing, logistics, running six
weeks of camps, we look anywhere from 10 to 20,000 probably.

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So it is a pretty undertaking.

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But if you find partners, because even before these large
donations or support that we received from our community members.

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Years prior, we had businesses donate and volunteer or support
in other ways, too.

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So I think if you are able to establish a program and establish
a successful background or prove that you've been successful with

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it, you might find that you're going to have a lot of community
partners who want to help and support.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
I love that.

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How have you, especially over this 25 years, how have you
measured the impact of Hydromania in the community?

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Because, you know, every little bit of water helps build over
time and can wear things through, and just the power can really

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grow. And what's the benefit to the co-op?

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How has this helped you tell your story?

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Weston Putman:
Yeah. So I think sometimes with the kids, so our education,
especially with Hydromania, we try to start it obviously from

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fourth and fifth grade. And I think how we try to measure it is
if we hear from community members that a student really enjoyed

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Hydromania and maybe learned specifically about hydropower or
whatever it may be, that is, I guess, our best way of measuring

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it. Is more of just word of mouth of what we hear from the
community.

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And so far it's been undoubtedly positive.

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And so we know it's going well.

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And I guess a way that we measure it or want to continue to
educate is just, yeah, start them young,

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fourth and fifth grade. I mean, you're looking at I think that's
anywhere from 10 to 12 years old.

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And when you're starting that young, and you're just going to a
camp, and there's been students who continue to talk about it.

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I have a perfect example of my wife, who is from Hermiston, went
to Hydromania.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
No, she didn't.

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Weston Putman:
And tells me over and over again that she won.

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It's, at the end, they do kind of a knowledge bowl where you
have to take a test and all you did.

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And at the time you got a little like, I think it was like a
plastic or glass ball.

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She said she won it. And I tell her to prove it to me where
that's at, but she can't find it.

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So I'm thinking something's fishy.

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But she did it.

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And so she continues to talk about it.

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She has friends who did it, and she's now 26.

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And so you're talking, you're 26 years old, talking about
something you did in fourth grade, and you continue to talk about

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it. So that's how we measure the impact.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
I love that. And with all of those kids that have gone through
the program, I appreciate that you married one of them.

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So that's how you keep track of her, right?

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But how else do you track, or do you, try to keep following up
on that story with folks that have gone through the program?

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Weston Putman:
Yeah. And just to be clear, I don't know if I would have married
her if she didn't go to Hydromania.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
Fair. Thank you for clarifying that for everybody, Weston.

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Weston Putman:
No problem. But yeah.

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So again, back to Amy Baker.

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She's one of the most organized people I've ever met.

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And she does a wonderful job of spreadsheets of names every
year.

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And it's great that you just asked this because in our past
September Rulite, like just like a couple weeks ago, we launched

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"a where are they now?" Two page spread in our Rulite.

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They're not just Hydromania, but there is a student in there.

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But we did it for Washington, D.C.

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Youth Tour. We participate in the Idaho Youth Rally since we're
fairly close, and then Hydromania.

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And so we highlighted four students, some were scholarship
winners.

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One was Washington, D.C., and the one that's Hydromania, we
highlighted because he's now an electrician.

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And so it comes right back to the industry.

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And so she keeps track of all of our youth activities.

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And so we can do things like this, whether it's a video or
whether like for the Ruralite, it's a two page spread of the

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where are they now? And with those four students, one was a
physician assistant, one's in nursing, and then

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one's an electrician, and then one's at Stanford studying
international relations.

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And similar to my wife, who knows if they would be doing that if
they didn't have Hydromania.

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That's right. You can't you can't say Hydromania didn't help.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
Yeah, her whole life would be different. (laughs) Well, and I've
heard of some utilities, especially

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if Amy has the spreadsheet and all this information to follow
the kids.

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You know, when it is time for scholarships, letting them know
and keeping the story going with other opportunities down the

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line. When it's time for Washington Youth Tour, you have a list
of folks who already know your story and might already be

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champions of yours in the community, so letting them know about
opportunities throughout their time as they're growing up in the

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community.

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Weston Putman:
Yeah, exactly. And so that one going to Stanford is a perfect
example.

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She was one of our Washington, D.C.

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youth students, so we knew she was a great student, and then
would come scholarship season.

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We saw her name and was like, yeah, of course.

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And so that's just the, I guess, cooperative impact.

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And that, to answer your question, is how we track.

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And it was just great timing because, yeah, we did just run that
in our Ruralite.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
I cannot wait.

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We'll have a link to that story at pioneer.coop/podcasts in this
episode so that folks can read it and see.

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And if you have, if you mind, any information about Hydromania,
maybe some examples of your applications and stuff, we'll

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definitely have links there so that folks can see more about the
experience that y'all are offering to folks.

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00:20:59,570 --> 00:21:03,680
So just one last question before I let you go and eat breakfast
with everybody here at the NIC.

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If another utility is thinking about developing a summer camp,
what advice would you offer?

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Weston Putman:
Just do it.

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And I know that's easy to say, but you don't have to.

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So during this podcast, I think it's been easy for me to talk
about it because it's again, been 25 years.

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I'm sure in year one it wasn't as easy to talk about.

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And perhaps there were challenges, perhaps there were struggles
or, you know, perhaps it wasn't six weeks of camp.

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If you just do it and maybe you're starting at a three day camp,
and maybe that's how you start it, and maybe it's only 8 a.m.

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to noon, and that's just how you want to kick off.

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I would just say try it, start it, and just do what you can with
the bandwidth you have, with the resources you have with the

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community partners you have.

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So it's kind of cheesy to say just do it, but I do think that is
my answer is just try to do it.

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And again, it doesn't need to be six weeks of camp.

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That's been 25 years in the making.

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If it's three days, if it's a week, I think you're still making
an impact on your youth.

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Megan McKoy-Noe:
Weston, I love that.

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Thank you so much.

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Weston Putman:
Thank you again for having me.

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00:22:06,180 --> 00:22:08,460
Megan McKoy-Noe:
For sharing your story with utility pioneers.

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00:22:08,460 --> 00:22:10,890
It's just, it's so exciting. I've wanted to talk to you about
this for ages.

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00:22:10,890 --> 00:22:17,820
So he is Weston Putman from Umatilla Electric Cooperative, and
I'm your host Megan McKoy-Noe at Pioneer Utility Resources.

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And until we talk again, keep telling your story.

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Outro:
StoryConnect is produced by Pioneer Utility Resources, a
communications cooperative that is built to share your story.

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00:22:29,460 --> 00:22:34,110
StoryConnect is engineered by Lucas Smith of Lucky Sound Studio.