Moose and Marriage, the Park Service Family expands (NPS Digest)


	Barbara Moose; the groom's mother

Family, friends, fellow Rangers, and a single bull elk gathered at the Palmer Chapel in Cataloochee Valley, inside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park at 5pm on October 24, 2009 to witness the uniting of two lives in marriage. Jay Moose and Courtney Fitzjarrald both work for the National Park Service and a love for their jobs and the Service they reperesent offered the opportunity for their meeting. It was that common love that blossomed into a shared love between them and how fitting they seal it with vows exchanged in the beautiful Smoky Mountains. Ranger Jay Moose began his career with the National Park Service as a volunteer, assisting Resource Manaagement in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park with treatments of the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid. He later secured a position at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center as a STEP employee in May 2004. He transferred to Thomas Stone National Historic Site in Port Tobacco, MD when he accepted his first permanent position in 2007. Nearly one year later, Courtney Fitzjarrald was hired at George Washington Birthplace National Monument as the Office Automoation Assistant. Ms. Fitzjarrald had worked in the private sector in Human Resources for over twenty years and yet had always desired to work for the Park Service. Courtney's new employee orientation tour of the house and grounds at Thomas Stone National Historic site was conducted by Ranger Moose, and in no time at all, love ensued between them. Neraly two years later, the two of them returned to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to exchange vows and unite their lives amidst the beautiful fall foliage of the Smokies in historic Palmer Chapel as the elk bugled their approval. Mr. and Mrs. Moose thank all of their friends and collagues for the well wishes received.

Contact Information
Name: Jay Moose, jmoose@nps.gov
Phone Number: 301-392-1776
Email: Jay_Moose@nps.gov