Up With People

• By ED CULLEN
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Jan 6, 2009 - Page: 1E - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Forty-three years after its founding, comedy writers still make fun of Up With People for its unrestrained perkiness, but a father and son who each did stints as “uppies,” say they got a lot from their time with UWP.

“People perceive you by your actions,” said Jay Pennington, 23, who has just finished a six-month tour with Up With People that included weekly shows in the U.S., Mexico and the Philippines.

The organization is much the same as it was in 1976 when Jay’s father, Jeff, a project manager with Louisiana Economic Development, joined up.

A couple of differences stand out. Jeff paid $5,000 to the organization to tour for a year. His son’s six months with UWP cost almost $15,000.

Cast members also pay for health insurance and their travel costs to Denver for orientation and back home when  their time is up.

A big difference, Jeff Pennington said, are the “cultural and community impact” projects contemporary “uppies” do compared to the non-stop shows his generation did.

“We did little or nothing of what they do now,” Jeff said.  “We were in a town, did a show and moved on.”

Up With People came back a scaled down version of itself after having to shut down in 2000.

“The 2000 bankruptcy was a shock to alumni,” Jeff Pennington said. “They had $3 million. What happened to it? They went through a lot of restructuring.”

Up With People reported a $3.2 million budget shortfall while firing 262 employees, including almost 70 headquarters staff in a Denver suburb, according to an Associated Press story.

Conceived as an international troupe of young singers and dancers in 1965, UWP was meant to promote understanding among the world’s people. It wasn’t — and isn’t — religious or intended to further any political agenda, Jeff Pennington said.

“We focus on positive things,” Jay said. “There are enough people focusing on the negative things.”

Jay wasn’t a year old when his dad, already an alumnus of UWP, took him to a show in New Orleans. When Jay was about 10, his father took him to the first Up With People performance that Jay remembers.