Houston Area Ghostbusters

Employee of the Month, October 2011 - Julie Hoke; New Recruit Trainer; Experimental Equipment Testor

Julie Hoke  has been with the company since the beginning.  She started out like most of the other new recruits:  Scrub Duty.  Since then she's worked her way up the corporate ladder and now occupies two very important posistions:  Experimental Equipment Testor and New Recruit Trainer.  Usually she combines the two and trains the new recruits on testing the experimental equipment ... whch is one ofthe reasons our franchise seems to have a high turnaround rate.  But don't worry - they all signed the waivers before they began work.  We aren't liable.

Julie says that her favorite parts of being a Ghostbusters is the uniform, citing that it gives us license to get paid to catch ghosts while making a mess of things.  Her best time with the company was last year's Lights in the Heights parade where the crowd went wild for us, making the long walk completely worth it.

When she isn't teaching Trap Scrubbers how to scrub traps or blowing holes in the South side of the garage (she's still under review for that one), she works as a veterinary technician. She loves all animals (but especially cats) and costuming. Her alter ego is Catwoman. She has a menagerie of critters and loves to tell stories about them! Her all-time favorite pastime is harassing her husband, Steve.

Employee of the Month, August 2011 - William Cody "Bootstrap" Turner; Paranormal Investigator/ Equipment Maintenence Supervisor

William Cody "Bootstrap" Turner joined the HAGB in October 2010 with his first official event being the Lights in the Heights parade the following December.  Ghostbusters was the first movie that he ever saw in a theater and he's been hooked ever since.  So far he's really enjoyed working for the company, citing the Relay For Life fundraising events as his favorite.  With family members that have battle cancer, he finds that helping to raise funds and awareness are especially gratifying work.  The feild trip to Baton Rogue for the Krewe Mystique de la Capitale Mardi Gras Parade with the Louisiana Ghostbusters is another favorite of his.

Bootstrap has come into his own in the company.  He started out as a sort of ... paranormal "gopher."  Haunting in a bad part of town?  Send Bootstrap.  Newly "repaired" company car needs to be test driven? Send Bootstrap!  We're out of Twizzlers?  .. you get the idea.  But his willingness to do the job and to do it right was what propelled him up the corporate fire pole, so to speak.  In addition to being a general 'Buster, he also enjoys the title of Equipment Maintenence Supervisor.  A well deserved title, especially after the time he went out to buy Twizzlers from that haunted store on the bad side of town in the untested company car.

When he's not saving the world from the otherworldly, Cody is a service rep for a valve manufacture and spends most of his time at work trying not to work.  Actually, he works too much and would really like a vacation that’s more than having half a Friday off.  He goes to the gym almost every day now to get in shape for future costumes and to lead a healthier lifestyle. He enjoys playing video games, working on new projects and sleeping when he has the time.