Other Duties as Needed

October 29, 2012
robintaylor's picture

When I started with the Foundation back in September 1999, I hadn't realized how beneficial my hobby of gardening and landscaping was going to be. With a small staff, we wear many different hats to make sure that everything gets done. So, in late October of that year, my co-worker Amy and I journeyed from our downtown office out to the Fairgrounds to lay bricks with the help of John Cruse, a gentleman brick-layer through and through. Yes, the engraved bricks have been put in place by the Foundation staff, with an occasional assist from Maintenance. Definitely not a normally requested skill for an office job. Now, I have quite a few years under my belt and know some of the intricacies of coaxing a brick from a pad in order to put in a newly engraved brick.  And, I now know which brick pads I like to work on and which ones I try to avoid at all costs.  Each of the locations have their own personalities in how they seem to cooperate - Cattle, Maytag, Ag are easy whereas Pella Plaza, the Pavilion and Administration are ones I like to avoid.

It's always fun in the summer to introduce the interns to this tradition as I'm sure it's not a skill they anticipated learning when they applied for an internship. In the summer we will have several hundred bricks to place, so it truly takes a divide and conquer approach with several "teams" working a full day at it.  At this time of year, we have 50-75 bricks so it's a much less time consuming task.  So, today Allyson and I divided up the bricks, tools and sand and enjoyed a few peaceful hours out on the grounds.  I have a few more to finish up tomorrow afternoon as I had a few uncooperative locations so I will get to enjoy another nice Fall afternoon at "work" on the Fairgrounds.