Full Circle

Sonya Harmon-Nash began working at Amish Acres as a soda jerk, waitress and hostess at Amish Acres during her college summers. After receiving her business degree from Indiana University—Bloomington, she was drawn back to the farm as an assistant kitchen manager. Several months later she volunteered for the group sales position that became vacant. She reinvented the position becoming the first from Amish Acres to attend national trade shows.

After thirteen years at Amish Acres she joined the South Bend Convention and Visitors Bureau to create their group sales effort. Within several years Sonya was drawn back to the Elkhart County Convention and Visitors Bureau where she now represents Amish Acres again—from the other side of the table. Sonya told The Group Travel Leader magazine in a “People in Tourism” article written by Herb Sparrow, that she now works more in product development. She said, “By far, the key to generating any success is you have to keep abreast of the trends, what people are buying, where they are going, and develop products. If you keep relying on the same old, same old, the world will pass you by.” With Amish Acres and Amish Country as her product, Sonya must as Peter Allen sang: make it a destination “where everything old is new again.”