By Rachel Bernstein : The Herald-Sun
abc@heraldsun.com
Apr 13, 2006 : 11:34 pm ET
DURHAM -- There's more to being Miss America than just glitz and glamour. Sometimes the job involves hard hats and heavy machinery, as current crown wearer Jennifer Berry found out during a visit to the Bull City.
About 70 construction workers at American Tobacco got the surprise of a lifetime Thursday afternoon when Berry stopped by to serve them lunch. While Berry was in town mainly for pleasure, she decided to don her crown at the construction site as a favor to her friend and Miss America 1996 Shawntel Wuerch. Wuerch is the wife of the current CEO of Motricity, a mobile content provider based in Durham that is renovating the Hill Building downtown for its future headquarters.
"There were a lot of excited and enthusiastic employees out there," said Ryan Wuerch, CEO of Motricity. "These men have been going on double shifts, 24 hours a day, and we just wanted to say thank you."
During the noon lunch break, Berry helped dish out Mexican food from Moe's southwest grill to the hard hat-clad workers. The buffet offered everything from burritos to chips and salsa.
Once it hit home that the beauty queen was in their presence, many of the workers grabbed their camera phones and eagerly snapped shots of Berry. The pageant winner also handed out autographed headshots to some of the workers.
"All of us were very surprised and very happy she was here," said James Fields, a maintenance service worker who said he watches the pageant every year.
"I was shocked, just really shocked," said Ricky Evans, a site supervisor. "We never expected to see her ... especially at a construction site."
Berry said she appreciates the workers' hard labor and was "thrilled' she could make them so happy. "They're such great, dedicated people who are working really hard to transform the area," she said. "It's such a simple thing for me to come say 'hi' and that we all appreciate their work."
While the workers said they enjoyed being served by Berry, when it came to actually meeting her, many were at a loss for what to say.
"Most of them were too shy to even talk to me, so I just went up to them and said 'hi,' " said Berry. "I loved seeing their smiles ... It made my whole day."
Berry also said she was excited to see the development of the site, part of a citywide project to revitalize downtown Durham. "It reminded me a lot of what we did in the Oklahoma City area a few years ago," said the Sooner State native, explaining that the city's downtown area experienced a rapid transformation a few years ago. "I'm just thrilled because I've seen what it did for Oklahoma and it's going to be the same here," she said. "The area is becoming a whole new venue."
Motricity, which currently operates out of two buildings in Durham, is renovating the Hill Building at American Tobacco for its new global headquarters. The need for a new location stems from the company's recent boom in growth, said Ryan Wuerch, Motricity's CEO. Motricity employs about 320 Durham residents and is hiring an average of one new employee every other day, according to Wuerch.
As an anchor tenant in the American Tobacco Historic District, Motricity will initially occupy 70,000 square feet of space in the historic Hill Building. The company will potentially acquire additional space in the future. Construction began in August 2005 and is scheduled for completion in July, said Wuerch.
TKPN
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