Notes from Town Square: The difference a year makes

The Green River URA/Main Street Agency has had a very busy couple of weeks.

Flaming Gorge Days was a lot of fun this year. As part of our fundraising efforts, the Organization Committee had a booth at Battle of the Bands and introduced our Original Green River Cheese Steak Sandwiches. They also sold the sandwiches at Evers Park on Friday and Saturday. Our rough estimate is that we sold about 430 sandwiches. I think the Green River Police Department really enjoyed them because we saw several of their faces more than once throughout the weekend. I consider this fundraiser a success and the Committee definitely plans to do it again and some upcoming events.

The Promotions Committee did a fabulous job on their parade float, and it showed, because they took 2nd place in the Float Contest. They gave plenty of candy away, as well as tokens for $.50 off one of our sandwiches.

Monday night, we did the ribbon cutting for the Clock Tower Plaza. There were approximately 70 people in attendance. There were appetizers provided by two downtown restaurants, Krazy Moose and the Hitching Post, and let me just say that they were delicious. Complimentary beverages were provided by the Green River Development Fund, Inc. which is the non-profit organization that was established to help support the Green River URA/Main Street Agency’s mission and goals. We had a concert in the park and it was a beautiful evening.

The last few days have been chaotic for me as I have been running around purchasing supplies, picking things up, dropping them off and a variety of other things. I think I’ve been running on adrenaline since Monday of last week. Saturday morning I was struck by something. I was marveling at how stressed I felt, yet how happy I was and how much fun I was having. Then a thought occurred to me; do you know where I was at this time last year? I was manning a booth at Evers Park, by myself, trying to sell cheese.

I had virtually zero volunteer help. To make matters worse, the weather was awful and attendance was very low. The Clock Tower Project seemed like it was never going to be finished and everything felt like it was about to implode. To say I was feeling discouraged is an understatement.

Fast forward to now. There were two separate committees, doing two different activities for the same event. They were fully manned by volunteers. There were at least 10 volunteers that worked on the parade float, and around seven volunteers selling sandwiches.

My job was simply to make sure that everyone had everything they needed. The Clock Tower is finished and it is beautiful. It’s better than we imagined and know that it’s going to be a lovely venue for many activities.

What a difference a year makes. I am very proud to be a part of this organization and to work with the dedicated volunteers we have. They have made all the difference and I can’t wait to see what they will do next.