Talk about a man of many hats! Jim Kunau has worked for the family business of windshield replacement, worked at a day care, ran a bar, drove a delivery truck, worked for a caterer, and as a medical equipment sales representative. He started working at a theme park while he was working on his college degree, then worked as a consultant in Dubai. Upon his return back to the States, he began working for struggling theme parks around the country and eventually ended up at Hurricane Alley Waterpark right here in Corpus Christi. Phew! Though he’s had many jobs all over the country and world, Jim plans on having Corpus be his last move. It’s a laid back town and he’s having fun working with Hurricane Alley and the connections he’s made along the way.
For the past 4 years Jim has been the General Manager of Hurricane Alley and serves on multiples boards for various causes in Corpus Christi, including serving on Youth Odyssey’s board of directors. Before he joined our team in August 2015, he discovered Youth Odyssey through a professional connection. That connection was another Youth Odyssey board member, James Gourley; who later introduced Jim to Youth Odyssey with an initial focus of acquiring funds for our programming. He eased Jim into what Youth Odyssey was and what it is we do in the Corpus Christi area. Eventually, Jim was asked to join our board by another board of director member, Polly Harris and our Executive Director, Becky Meyer; thankfully, he agreed.
While Jim and I were talking, we were discussing the other boards that he is on and how they all have a 
business advantage for him as well as being a good cause. Except for Youth Odyssey, Jim said “Youth Odyssey is actually the only board that I’m on where I don’t have a business purpose in mind. With what I do, children are important, and as a business person in the community I want to hire an educated work force. Finding someone to run a cash register isn’t as easy as you’d think. So, if there’s any place where I can help kids learn better I will. I feel we have an obligation to our community and I take personal satisfaction in knowing that we are giving back.”
Having only been on the board for a few months, Jim is still getting his bearings. So far he has been pleasantly surprised at how progressive our board is, he is excited to see the results we are producing, and where we will grow from here. Due to his newness and his other obligations Jim hasn’t been able to really see what Youth Odyssey does in the field. As a board member he attends our meetings and adds to our ideas and discussions but it has all been on paper. Jim knows what we do and how we do it but he wants to be more physically present in our out-of-meeting activities. He has set a goal for himself this year to be more immersed in Youth Odyssey activities like attending a ropes course or a program and talk to those who are a part of the Youth 
Odyssey network in order to better understand our purpose and impact. By doing this Jim hopes it will give him enough information to make informed decisions about Youth Odyssey issues. Jim is a man with connections and has a personal hashtag of #igag, “I got a guy.” He wants to better understand Youth Odyssey so he can utilize his connections to benefit our mission and increase awareness.
Jim is a fan of Youth Odyssey and I don’t see that changing any time soon. It’s a new year and with it will come more understanding and support from our board members as well as our community.
