Park Day 2007

Park Day 2007
Objectives Achieved

Raymond City Alderman Randall Harris operates the striping machine, with plenty of supervision, to mark the new bus parking lot for the Raymond Walking/Interpretive Trail.

Despite an unusual cold snap of 48 degrees on April 7, Friends of Raymond volunteers rose to the occasion for FOR's annual "Grassroots Preservation" activities during the annual Park Day on the Raymond Walking/Interpretive Trail. As a reward, the chilled but enthusiastic workers received History Channel T-shirts, a hotdog lunch, and a history lecture by FOR President Parker Hills, along with the satisfaction received from a job well done.

The objectives for this year were many, and all were met as the new bus parking lot was paint-striped for bus and automobile parking; the new Raymond Military Park granite marker was accessorized with decorative plants; the gravel parking lot was leveled with a front-end loader; a broken bollard was replaced; all bollards were fitted with new reflective warning lights; the three walking trail cannon were painted; a cannon barrel was replaced for a better fit with the carriage; and, of course, litter was cleaned up. The spruced-up trail was made ready for tourists, exercisers, and for the April 21 Dedication Day Ceremony.

FOR has conducted Park Day in coordination with the Civil War Preservation Trust annual event since the inception of the Friends in 1998, and each event has become more ambitious it its objectives, requiring extensive planning and coordination for equipment and workers. Sign-in sheets and work rosters are a normal part Park Day, and each worker is assigned tasks that fit his or her comfort zone, whether it be picking up litter, masking and painting cannon, or relatively heavy manual labor, such as digging holes or team-lifting cannon barrels that weigh several hundred pounds each.

Students from Hinds Community College in Raymond work on masking a 12-pound howitzer for painting while other workers place decorative plants at the new Raymond Military Park granite marker and prepare to paint stripe the new bus parking lot.

This year, Mayor Isla Tullos of Raymond instructed young workers on the proper method of planting the decorative yucca plants that enhance the new granite sign, then she joined other workers and roamed along the walking trail and frontage roads picking up the inevitable stray cans and litter that are launched from the windows of passing vehicles. Meanwhile, Raymond City Alderman Randall Harris successfully tried his hand at operating the spray paint machine designed for painting uniform lines on streets and parking lots, thus, marking the bus parking areas, while Raymond Chamber of Commerce Executive Director John Barber used a leaf blower to clean the dust and gravel from the lot so that the paint would properly adhere to the asphalt.

Simultaneously, heavy equipment, in the form of a front-end loader, volunteered and owned and operated by John Fike of Raymond, scraped and leveled the gravel on the walking trail automobile parking area, and students from Hinds Community College in Raymond masked the cannon carriages with newspaper so that the barrels could receive a fresh coat of paint. David French of Raymond and his two sons assisted Parker Hills and other volunteers with the heavy lifting and replacement of a cannon barrel and broken bollard. At day's end Hills summed up the event by saying, "It was a great day to be a member of Friends of Raymond-mission accomplished."