"Don't let the economy break you down," ex-castmember Jan Gentry says at the National Tourism Week Luncheon.
By LISA GREENE
Published May 10, 2003
[Times photo: Scott Keeler]
Jan Gentry talks with guests at the National Toursim Week Luncheon in Clearwater.
CLEARWATER - Let's see: What does the TV show Survivor have to do with Gulf Coast tourism?
Imagine the slogans: "Come to Clearwater Beach! We won't vote you off the island!"
Or this one, suggests Jan Gentry: "Come to our restaurants! We'll bring you water without making you swim for it!"
Gentry had to do just that to fetch drinking water during her stint in Thailand on Survivor, the king of reality shows. She talked about her adventure Friday as the guest speaker - she charged no fee - at Pinellas County's National Tourism Week Luncheon.
You might not instantly connect Gentry to the tourism business.
After all, she taught first grade in Lutz before and after she won Survivor viewers over with her sky-high pigtails and team of older-but-wiser competitors.
Gentry lost the game and finished third because she couldn't keep a grip on three gold coins during her final Immunity Challenge.
In other words, Pinellas' tourism industry turned for inspiration Friday to a woman who couldn't hold onto her money.
But Gentry's presence made for a great theme: "Tourism will survive." Plush monkeys in safari jackets sat on every table. Burlap and a tiki torch decorated the podium.
"Don't let the economy break you down," Gentry advised the audience. "Let's all be survivors and not ever quit."
Guests dined on linguine topped with shrimp and scallops and finished up with chocolate-dipped strawberries and mini-eclairs.
A little tastier, Gentry said, than the slugs she scraped off a cave wall and ate during the show.
Gentry came to the lunch wearing her trademark overalls. She told audience members that the lessons from the show can apply anywhere. In the beginning, her tribe, Chuay Gahn, lost challenge after challenge to the younger, more athletic Sook Jai tribe. Soon they were outnumbered 8 to 5.
"We pulled together and said, "Don't quit,' " Gentry said. "We never lost another challenge."
But not everything went Gentry's way.
"They told me they'd make me look like Pamela Anderson," she joked. "I'm still a little mad about that. I think I wound up looking more like Granny Clampett."
Some audience members said they loved Gentry's can-do attitude.
"You're such an inspiration to us women over 40," Gennifer Renfrow told Gentry as she signed photos after the lunch.
Renfrow said Gentry sent a message that "women can do anything and still be graceful . . . and fun."
Renfrow's daughter, Jennie Ibarguen, likes Gentry because of the way she played.
"She got so far without being back-stabbing and sneaky," she said.
Others asked Gentry more prosaic questions.
Who's her favorite player on this round of Survivor? Christy and Butch, who has been "very moral" in playing the game, Gentry said. But "the ultimate best player is Rob."
The hardest part of the show wasn't the physical challenges, Gentry said. "I missed my family," she said. "The down time was hard," because that's when she missed family members most.
Because the show was filmed in a national park, contestants couldn't take anything out of it. So Gentry has few souvenirs. But one she kept.
"I brought back a gold coin from that challenge," she said. "I don't like it. It means I kept my day job."
