Debbie Parsons Mooney has tons of fun reading the blog and is really looking forward to seeing everyone at the reunion. It’s less than 3 weeks away now!
Debbie attended the University of Illinois, like both of her sisters before her. After graduation, she worked for The Heart Association in Elgin, Illinois as a floating field director and later, director for Kane, DeKalb & McHenry counties in Northern Illinois. As director, she was responsible for recruiting and overseeing volunteers in the fund-raising & educational programs that The Heart Association offers. In 1978, she moved back to Champaign-Urbana and worked as a sales rep for P.F. Skinner Food & Brokerage...Call it '
Debbie Does The Midwest' as the territory she traveled encompassed from Kankakee to Cairo, from Evansville to Paducah, and from Crawfordsville, IN to Jacksonville, IL. Debbie represented a LOT of non-food lines to grocery, drug, and mass-merchandise accounts (Walmart, Target, etc.) - some of the lines were Mennen, L'Oreal, Revlon, Eveready, Polaroid, Johnson & Johnson and Hawaiian Tropic, to name just a few of them. Debbie even won a 2-week trip to Hawaii for one sales contest, as well as a diamond necklace from a Revlon sales contest. She thinks one of her urchins must have lost or eaten it.
And speaking of urchins...during this time, Debbie married her college sweetheart, Mark Mooney, and proceeded to start her family. Rachael was born in 1985, Molly in 1986, and Caitlyn in 1987.
A Helene Curtis sales rep recommended Debbie for his territory when he left the company, and Debbie worked for Helene Curtis (Suave, Degree, Salon Selective, Finesse) until 1994. This job paid much better than the brokerage, the territory was smaller and she didn't have to call on everything with a door on it. It was a much more manageable position with the 3 girls. She could do all the traveling she needed to do in 3 days, and it was in Southern Illinois so she'd take the kids to her Mother & Dad's while she made her rounds. This arrangement worked well until the girls started school.
After awhile, Debbie tired of all of the travel and accepted a job as a copier salesperson, which she absolutely hated! Mark was on the road now, so Debbie quit and became a stay-at-home mom. They added tothe family in 1994 when Brenna was born, and, again in 1997, when Libby was born. Debbie remained a stay-at-home mom until 1998, then started back to work as a Director of Sales for The University Inn in Champaign.
Debbie LOVES the hotel industry! She says it’s always new circumstances and it's also just a lot of fun. The company sold the hotel and she went to work at the sister hotel, The Chancellor. Unfortunately, this hotel was becoming run down and there were rumors that it was going to close so Debbie left there and went to Jumer's. This was a big MISTAKE! It appeared that the guy who bought it from Mr. Jumer's didn't pay ANY bills and so there were bounced paychecks, massive walkouts and food deliveries were held up due to non-payment. Not to mention the fact that you couldn't make long distance calls, etc. It was incredibly stressful. So when the General Manager at Eastland call
ed Debbie and offered her the Food & Beverage job – she moved on.
In all her hotel jobs, Debbie sold the hotel (both sleeping rooms and food & beverage) to all different kinds of groups, both business and leisure of some type or another. After the initial booking, she followed through until the end of the event (make sure the contracts were signed, help out with the menu decisions and even helped with the decorating, etc.) She says she’s at work the day/night of the event to see that it goes smoothly and that it’s very rewarding when a bride or planner comes to you and says that YOU helped to make their event a success.
No wonder she's smiling in the shower!
