My first ground-breaking ceremony

We had glorious weather for our ceremonial ground-breaking Nov. 3, 2015, for Hilltop Grand Village. It was 70 with sun and a breeze. It aided in our event’s success, I’m sure.

Remember, this is Wisconsin -- November in Wisconsin. Some years, we have snow in October, so 70 and shirt-sleeves is a gift.

This was my first ground-breaking. People think if you work for a newspaper you cover a lot of ground-breaking ceremonies. But most are just that – ceremonial. The work usually has begun (which is true for Hilltop Grand Village), and it’s a chance for company leaders and employees to share the project in a public way with financial folks, architects, builders and local dignitaries. It’s a great way to kick off the project. And it’s just something you do. It’s expected, I guess.

It also was my first time planning one. After kicking around some ideas, I went online to figure out what other people do. Turns out most ground breakings are pretty standard, but we wanted ours to be uniquely ours.

Hilltop Grand Village will offer resort-style living for independent seniors. It will offer amenities people likely don’t have at home and activities you might find at resort hotels. It will look like a resort and function like one, too. So, if you were having a ground-breaking for a resort, what would you have? Something classy, right?

Hilltop Grand Village also will have an indoor streetscape where residents and guests can find our many amenities as well as plenty of places to gather and share in our community. It’s nicknamed Broadway, so opening night on Broadway, you’d have a red-carpet event.

The concept was decided.

It actually was easy to find a red carpet and velvet ropes – a family member used them for an event and had them in storage. We pulled together champagne flutes and wine glasses, gold flatware and red table cloths. We bought sparkling wine and cheesecake, and Altmann Construction provided cheese and sausage trays, crackers, water and soda – and the golden shovels. The final touch was swag bags. While they didn’t rival the ones guests get at premieres, they were pretty and provided some tasty and useful treats to our guests.

We had enough special guests in attendance that we did two rounds of tossing shovels full of sand for the cameras. Smiles and applause all around.

The only thing I didn’t take into account was the noise at a construction site. We weren’t planning long or detailed remarks, and our group would be small enough I didn’t anticipate the need for a microphone and loud speaker. Fortunately, River Cities Community Access attended and videotaped the event. Jesse Austin brought a microphone to be able to capture our speakers on video. You can see (and hear!) that video (and ours) here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5VlE-nL4JOZy2Kc6xMQbLP-yXMRL7Wwn

All in all, it was a successful event. And now I can say I’ve not only been to a ground-breaking ceremony, I’ve planned one.