Every time you drive down a smoothly paved road, flush your toilet, and see beautiful plants and trees on the streets, thank the Public Works Dept! If you didn't know already, the Public Works Department is responsible for the maintenance and construction of all facilities and equipment, including streets, sidewalks, parks, public buildings, street trees, flood control channels, and traffic signals. Additionally, the department is in charge of the City's water system and managing trash and recycling services. The Public Works Dept. does an amazing job at preserving GG's aesthetic value and functionality of the infrastructure! No wonder we celebrate their hard work every year!
At the front entrance!
Today was the day to celebrate another year of great work from this department and also to become educated about what Public Works is all about, with a lot of fun and food of course! It was a great turn out despite the morning drizzles and cloud-cover. By lunchtime, the sun came out and more people started to come for the fun! There was an opening ceremony with a presentation of the flag given by the Boy Scouts and the National Anthem, sung by me. :) Keith Jones, the director of the GG Public Works, presided over this ceremony while Mayor Dalton, Andrew Do, and Bruce Broadwater spoke about their gratitude for our "unsung heroes". Jessica was able to say a few words as well, and she rocked that podium! :) The ceremony concluded with a ribbon-cutting; although, it was more like a "caution-tape-cutting", which seemed appropriate being that this was a Public Works event. After the Mayor and other dignitaries cut the ribbon, the house was officially open!
see why I call it the "caution-tape" ribbon? :)
singing the national anthem...
Jessica saying her little speech...
Jessica and I with Mayor Bill Dalton
As each attendee entered the event, they received a bag full of goodies and a "passport" to the raffle for prizes! This "passport" had slots for stamps and once they were all full, you could be put through a raffle! The stamps were found at the presentation booths around the festival and each booth represented a service that the PW provided. Stacy, Jessica, and I were able to get a passport of our own and get all the stamps! There were so many amazing prizes including gift cards worth hundreds of dollars for Target, restaurants, movie theaters, and Ducks games. The grand prize was a 16GB iPad! I was not a lucky winner, but someone else was!
Jessica won this game! lots of fun!
On top of participating in all the games and food, Jessica and I volunteered at the tattoo booth for a while. NO, they weren't real tattoos...they were the fun waterproof ones and the kids loved them! Jessica and I had lots of fun talking with the kids and giving them their favorite tattoo. Along with getting a tattoo, there was a coloring contest! The kids were able to color different pictures (representing the PW vehicles and services, of course!) and then they dropped their art in the contest to see who colored them the best. It was fun to watch them get into it!
my only job as a tattoo artist...the only kind I will ever get or do :)
he was a my favorite kid of the day...so cute!
she got the butterfly tattoo
Stacy was volunteering at the Soroptomist booth where they were selling home-baked goods and they sold a lot!
I could totally pass as a cop! haha
awwww.... so cute! Jessica read a story to one of the little girls.
I definitely learned a lot from this event and I will do what Mayor Dalton asked that all of us do, which was to thank and remember the Public Works guys when we notice how nice our city looks and functions! Be sure to come to this open house next year, it will educate you more and will make you more appreciative to all the men and women that work so hard to enhance our city.
No comments:
Post a Comment