 Good afternoon, everyone. If I could have your attention. Please continue to eat and enjoy your food and remember There's dessert on the back tables if you're if you're ready for that part of your meal I'm Michelle good the city of Fort Worth communications and public engagement director And I hope you all enjoyed this morning's workshops that we put on and we're able to get some valuable information to Take back to your neighborhoods we We'd like to begin this Event with an invocation by Brent Peterson He's from Fort Worth Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and as a member of the mayor's faith leaders cabinet Would you please join me up here for the invocation? our father in heaven we come before the at this Convention of neighborhoods and citizens of Fort Worth We're thankful to live in such a wonderful city and for the favorable circumstances in which we live we're thankful for the opportunity to interact as neighborhoods and to Figure out ways where we can communicate together where we can help each other and where we can grow stronger neighborhoods We're thankful for those that are here Those volunteers that are here and those that work in the individual neighborhoods around Fort Worth and we asked The city to bless them that they might be a a light and a strength to their neighborhoods to help strengthen our community Block by block in neighborhood by neighborhood We're thankful for our first first responders that are here Our firefighters are our police our EMS our military and we asked by blessings to be with them To watch over them and protect them as they serve to protect us We're thankful for our city leaders For the mayor for the council and for their service in our behalf We asked they to bless them with wisdom and leadership as they serve the city We pray thy blessings upon these proceedings. We're thankful for thankful for those that will receive awards We're thankful for those who have participated to make this event possible We pray thy spirit to be with us and to shower out thy spirit upon our community of Fort Worth To keep us safe to keep us strong and to keep us moving in the right direction We acknowledge thy hand in all that we have and in all our blessings And we pronounce these blessings and ask these favors from the in the name of thy son jesus christ amen Thank you very much We have many special guests with us today First i'd like to recognize our elected officials. Please stand and remain standing as i say your name mayor betsy prize Um judge wittley was here earlier doing some workshops and i'm not sure if he was able to stay for the lunch carlos floris bryan bird carry moon Gina bivvans jungus jordan denise shingleton kelly allen gray and anzeda the members of your city council And for those of you that work closely with the district offices You know that the district directors are very important to um Helping interact with the city council and our neighborhoods. So if any district directors are here, I would ask them to stand We also have a special guest the commander of the joint reserve base captain john townsend There are many city staff members here today Too many to name, but if you are a city staff, would you please stand and let us recognize you Thank you for all your service to the neighborhoods I would like to give a special recognition to the community engagement team for organizing today's workshops Exhibitors and awards luncheon In addition to this event they work closely with you all all year They work with neighborhoods elementary schools after school programs other community groups and city staff You'll find all of their contact information in your program Now I know what happens when a lot of you get home after you've been to an event like this This um goes into the circular file cabinet and you never open it up again We intentionally put a lot of very valuable information in the book this year So we hope that you will look through it and use these resources all year long We have contact information for all of the people who gave workshops And they are willing to come out and do those same workshops for your neighborhoods We also have contact information for all of the exhibitors. So please look through this and be sure you keep it and use it all year long I would now like to ask the community engagement team to stand so they can be recognized Ruth Barajas Tabitha Butler Barry Cram Tracy Edwards Dot Kent Madeline Gibbs Erin Oliveras and their manager Catherine Huckabee Their mission is to connect you with city services to help you with all of your problems And each and to work with each of you to build a stronger community If you don't know these folks yet, I encourage you to reach out Get in contact with them and let them help you and your neighborhoods The first award we will give today is being given by the league of neighborhoods And I would like to ask gene bibb to come up. Who's the president? Thank you, Michelle The full worth league of neighborhood associations is pleased to present The 2017 Ben and to make a reward Neighbor neighborhood of the year award to read in m. Vincent Rita lives in the Brentwood oak hills neighborhood where she's been an active volunteer for at least two decades She was involved in the formation of the neighborhood association And was the first president and held that position for 12 years She's remained active in the association leadership It's now the vice president of communications And she's the co editor of the newsletter and has been for more than two decades Due to her position as a neighborhood leader she met other neighborhood leaders And formed an alliance of nearby neighborhoods They called it the neighborhoods of east fort worth And it's now grown to about 19 neighborhoods along interstate 30 from riverside drive to east chase Rita was elected to the board of directors of the league of neighborhoods in 2015 And elected president in 2016 She's been appointed to serve the city On several occasions. She served in the on the community development council And on the mayor's planning and advisory committee on homelessness She's been recognized in many ways for her dedication and service to the community Including being named an outstanding woman of foot worth in 1998 by mayor kennis bar And a foot worth commission on the status of women I'm proud to name Rita vinson as the ben and tomaco neighbor of the year Thank you and congratulations Rita The city of fort worth created the neighborhood awards 15 years ago to recognize a variety of projects and activities That helped make fort worth a great place to live work and play Today we'll recognize outstanding neighborhood newsletters We'll also hand out two awards in each of these categories First we'll announce the winning mandatory homeowners association Then we'll name the winning voluntary neighborhood association This format allows all groups to compete with their peers We'll also give three individual awards and of course name fort worth neighborhood of the year A panel of judges from other municipalities in our region reviewed all of the nominations We thank them for their hard work in choosing today's winners Now I would like to welcome mayor betsy price to do a welcome Howdy You knew I was going to say that didn't you? It's great to see everybody here on this beautiful warmer saturday afternoon, and i'm thrilled particularly here at rhodiotime There's so much going on in fort worth. It's just amazing I want to take just a second and thank commander townsen for being with us today The joint reserve base is so critical to fort worth in your service and the young men and women who serve out there To keep us all free and safe is critical to our country and our city and nation And talking about service chief Fitzgerald our police chief is here Joel Oh, he flipped out. Okay. He was here and chief jackson our fire chief is here chief And this is chief jackson's last neighborhood awards as our chief He's retiring in march if we let him and i'm not sure we're gonna do that But it's great to have the opportunity to be with you today I always enjoy this event because there's so much going on in our neighborhoods And in all cities, but particularly in big cities if you're not actively engaged with your neighborhoods You're making decisions in a vacuum You have to have that input from people in the community hence this council And i'm so glad council could be here today And myself are out and about all the time and we're listening to you and finding out what fun things you're up to What innovative things you're up to and what your needs and desires are I can't guarantee we can fill everyone up every time. You don't want to pay those kind of tax dollars But we're listening to you and we're getting them on the radar and we're getting a lot done But continue to stay involved so that the city stays strong and vibrant more than ever in today's world civic engagement and participation Is so incredibly important You turn on the news and often the discourse that you hear At the national level or you open facebook or twitter It seems like our civil discourse has totally gone off the rails But i'm proud to say that here in fort worth. We're a little more civil and we're like each other And staying engaged and staying working when you work on your neighborhood and build a strong neighborhood You just boost the city up a little farther as we celebrate the week of compassion The last week of january and the first part of february I would encourage all of you as neighbors to find a service project to get engaged with its sport worse week at compassion Dot org or is it dot brand is it dot org? Yeah, I think it is the website Or just take a minute to pick up your neighbor's newspaper and put it on the porch To go to the grocery store for somebody who might need it or simply pat a young man or young woman on the back And say you're growing up in a great city. Thank you for being here If all of us took the time to celebrate each other and to celebrate our neighborhoods We already live in the best city ever. Think how much better it would be Thank you for what you do to make our city strong and for what you do to make our neighborhoods great I'm delighted to be with you today Thank you mayor price Our first awards will recognize excellence and neighborhood communication Which is so important to bringing neighbors together Newsletters are judged on content and appearance as well as how well they reach their intended audience As I announce your name with the editor or an officer Please come forward to pick up your certificate and mayor price. Could you come up and join us so that you can Have your picture taken with them We'll take a group photo after all of the awards are handed out We're my staff is very good at like details Because on mine when it said introduce the mayor and then it said Turn page and sit down So they're not leaving anything up to chance today Okay, if I could have these um these hoa representatives, please come up crofford farms hoa heritage hoa marine creek association And tahama ridge hoa These hoas produce anywhere between two and twelve newsletters each year Costs are covered by the hoa dues and often supplemented by the sale of ads Now our newsletter winners in the voluntary association category are Berkeley Place Eastern Hills Fairmount Mistletoe Heights Ridgely north And west meadowbrook Could you all come up for your awards? Most of these neighborhoods post electronic newsletters on their website or they email them directly to members Some still delivered printed copies either by mail or using block captains They sell ads to help offset the printing and the postage costs If you'd like to see samples of any of these award-winning newsletters Please contact to the association directly or you can call the community engagement office Thank you Our next award is the fort worth pride award It is given to an organization that improves the physical aspects of the neighborhood Winners in this category may have completed beautification projects community cleanups Park or garden projects are worked with the city's code compliance and other departments to make their neighborhood cleaner and more attractive Will the HOA finalists, please stand at your table as I read your names Chisholm ridge HOA for its tree planting program Neighbors applied for and received trees from the city forestry section Then dozens of volunteers helped plant 100 trees in the parkways and entryways to the neighborhood The trees not only beautify the area, but also add value and shade to the neighborhood Would harvest ridge HOA, please stand This was for their cow town cleanup This annual volunteer tradition to pick up litter turned into something much bigger in 2017 After march tornadoes ripped through north fort worth Downing trees fences and scattering roof shingles and the winner is harvest ridge HOA Would you please come up and would councilmember Dennis shingleton join them? While they're making their way to the stage. I'd like to tell you a little bit more about their efforts Harvest ridge had already set the date for its cow town cleanup But when damaging storms blew through just a few days before their project took on a whole new mission In addition to clearing their own neighborhood of downed limbs and debris Residents heard that nearby rolling meadows had been hit even harder Harvest ridge leaders knew they had to help On email and facebook harvest ridge renamed their project operation storm cleanup And volunteer response skyrocketed They surveyed both neighborhoods and made detailed notes about which streets needed which streets needed what? They recruited residents who had chainsaws and trucks and then matched them with teams of volunteers in specific areas of need They contacted the city to coordinate pickup of the debris and in just one day They not only cleaned up their neighborhood, but rolling meadows as well Congratulations to harvest ridge Now will the finalists of the voluntary association category Please stand when your name is called The judges were so impressed with these entries that they actually named four finalists for this award Please stand when your name is called and remain at your table and then we'll call the winner up Eastgate neighborhood association for its tireless efforts and getting a park and playground for their neighborhood Working together. They overcame obstacles of land acquisition and lack of funding Even when torrential rains delayed construction. They never gave up Historic rose dale park for its public art Volunteers worked with the city's graffiti abatement office to design and paint a mural featuring dunbar high school Along a major public walkway the neighborhood chose the name route to knowledge and made sure to involve student volunteers Next we have The linwood neighborhood association for its better block program A community walk helped residents identify safety needs such as crosswalks ramps and stop signs A grant from better blocks provided materials, but resident volunteers provided the manpower to paint curb markings and more And finally sunset heights neighborhood association This was also a public art project It started as an idea to prevent graffiti on a visile Highly visible neighborhood wall, but it grew into a beautification project that brought neighbors together And now serves as an entry sign to the neighborhood and the winner is sunset heights neighborhood association Would council member and say to please join them on the stage While they're having their picture taken, let me tell you a little bit more about what they did Instead of an artist driven design sunset heights chose a pixelated sunset with two silhouette figures in the foreground In addition to representing the neighborhood's name the six inch squares made it easy for neighborhood residents to participate in the painting It was literally a paint by number project Creating an original piece of art that now serves as a neighborhood entry sign Congratulations to sunset heights The spirit of fort worth award is given to associations that foster social revitalization Enhanced cultural aspects of the neighborhood or just simply make residents feel welcoming connected while working plane and celebrating together Will the HOA finalists, please stand as I read your names Harvest Ridge HOA for launching an activity program specifically for older residents in retirees The season's adult group plans its own events at least once a month Creative but inexpensive outings have included trivia night dinner in a high school play Speakers on identity theft prevention and a murder mystery dinner at a resident's house The remington point HOA For its food drive block parties they convinced They convinced HOA board members to take a pie in the face or a dip in the dunking booth If neighbors brought donations for those that needed most In addition to showing board members softer side the HOA collected more than 650 pounds of food for the tyrant area food bank And the winner is the remington point HOA Would you please come forward and would councilmember shingleton join them on the stage? While they're coming up and having their picture taken i'll tell you a little bit more about what they did Remington point hosted numerous events in 2017 A fish fry back to school party fall festival neighborhood cleanup and more But the project they submitted for this award is the one they're the most proud of They participated in the fort worth employee and neighborhood food drive for the first time They collected plenty of donations, but the block parties accomplished another goal HOA HOA board members often make tough decisions for the community But sometimes those decisions are not universally popular When HOA board members took a pie to the face or turn in the dunking booth Neighbors began to see them as one of us people doing their best to care for their neighborhood Congratulations to remington point Now for the voluntary association spirit of fort worth finalists, please stand as i read your names Crestwood neighborhood association for its neighborhood pet registry This online registry helps unite lost found or wandering pets with their owners using technology and volunteers The eastern hills neighborhood association For its easter egg hunt and july 4th parade and picnic as the neighborhood transitions from older residents To younger families both of these events helped connect newcomers with longtime residents and Ridgely north For its movies in the park This event brought back a neighborhood tradition from the 1940s and also highlighted recent improvements to bernie park A neighborhood survey to choose which movie to show generated excitement and pushed attendance to more than 130 neighbors And the winner is the crestwood neighborhood association Would councilmember shingleton come up and join them for their picture During its annual membership drive Crestwood encourages neighbors to register their pets in case they ever get lost The registry includes the pets photo description and owner contact information Via an online form they can report missing pets or animals running loose The association also had a has a universal microchip scanner That can scan pets on location The program is run entirely by volunteers with 100 success rate in reuniting pets and their owners It also reduces calls to animal control And increases awareness about the importance of having your dogs Or your pets tagged and microchipped Congratulations to crestwood I'd now like to invite mayor price to give the next awards Let me get your tablet for you This one is the mayor's health and fitness award that we added about three years ago And it's been incredible to see what so many of our neighborhoods Are are doing and what you're engaged in and you know If you haven't been asleep if you've been asleep, you wouldn't know but if you've been awake, you'd know I'm kind of a health nut And that I think Fort Worth should be the healthiest city and lead the nation and we're getting recognized for that And I love to see our citizens focused on taking their own health In hand because it's another tool in engaging in your neighborhood It's another tool in engaging in the city and healthy workers are more productive healthy kids or better students So the health and wellness award is just a great way to encourage that in our neighborhoods And to make a better life for everyone in a more attractive city So the first nominee is the Crawford Farms HOA And they've been active for a long time, but And let's ask them to stand But in 2017 they started a running club facebook page And more than 50 neighbors posted on the facebook page as they did their fun rides and joined And encouraged others to join them and cheer on The page was so active that they decided to tackle a run of their own and in february They started easy with a sweetheart stroll That encouraged residents to get their sweethearts hand and come out and walk and enjoy each other And that was just the warm-up in october They put together a 3k fun run that ended with october fest celebration They wore halloween costumes and the donations for entering the contest went to the american red cross Crawford Farms is our finalist and our winner for the HOA health and wellness Mr shingleton Come on up You're never quite finished with pictures in today's world cell phones make it you learn to just stand still So our neighborhood voluntary association our neighborhood association category Would you please stand as i address your names and announce them the eastern hills neighborhood association They submit it They're back here in the back They submitted their blue zones project after 40 years of high fat And high sugar potluck dinners cheesy casseroles and pies. I don't know about you, but it sounds good anyway Eastern hills decided to get a little healthier as a neighborhood They gave blue zones cooking demonstrations on how to eat healthier at home And at restaurant outings the neighborhood also partnered with eastern hills high school to build raised beds for gardening and planting vegetables in the school's garden Thank you for your work on that The garden of eden neighborhood association would you stand There they are This is their 13th annual 5k fun run and walk But this year they added a little bit of a twist and I can tell you that I know all about this because I've done this 5k five times And there's so many no other slow old ladies, so I usually win my division But they decided this year that they would make it focused on health and wellness in their community They've gotten pros at putting on a good race. So this year they decided to raise the issue of health care They had diabetes testing high blood pressure for their checks Chronic wellness counts and all kinds of education material But the fun thing about their run is it's made up of some of the youngest among us To some of the very oldest who don't run anymore, but just walk. It's always a good time. Congratulations for being nominated And historic rose dale park neighborhood association. There they are For the stop six shape up this initiative increased awareness about health issues in their community It focused on simple lifestyle and habit changes that can make people better and can make homes safer And better to be there it highlighted activities right there in their neighborhood Such as fitness and cooking demonstrations at the martin luther king community center And they encouraged all their neighborhoods And all their neighbors to get out and work a little harder. Thank you And the winner is The winner is this year's garden of eden fun ride Come on up Come on up Come on up to the stage and I don't believe councilmember moon is here This year's theme was the power in the blood They used the race to focus on the knowledge of knowing your own blood type Knowing your blood pressure know your glucose levels your cholesterol level And the importance of donating blood to help others The annual race is so Important because of its inclusiveness They give medals in all kinds of categories as I told you earlier. They even give them to old slow women I'm proud to say that I've competed and entered it in it for five times. It really is a fun thing Congratulations to garden of eden This is councilmember moons district and he could not be here today Congratulations to all of you This next award is about partnerships and collaboration. It honors significant creative initiatives initiatives that define a challenge and organize the community to make something happen to address that challenge Most of all it recognizes neighbors who work together with other neighborhood associations With city staff with their elected officials the schools in their neighborhood businesses and any other organization To find a solution to bring about positive change in their neighborhood or in the city as a whole The HOA finalists or if you'd please stand when I read your name Heritage homeowners association For they're all in for the blue hosted by the heritage poker club. This sounds like a fun group Members gathered rappel and silent auction items sold tickets to a poker tournament and arranged for in-kind food donations It took volunteers 900 hours of planning to set up and clean up, but it was well worth it. They raised $21,000 to support our local police officers Thank you The Tahama Ridge Association homeowners association For its bad building project residents and their children came together in a one day build sand and paint it Twin beds for needy folks in our community Even more residents donated mattresses pillows sheets while others volunteered to help deliver them to those in need Thank you And the winner is tahama ridge owners association Dennis, I think yours cleaning up As they make their way forward. I'll tell you a little bit more about their project They established a service outreach committee and brainstormed for a worthwhile project After learning about an elderly woman who had no bed to sleep on after her apartment was flooded They decided to provide beds for area agencies that help similar people in need HOA dues cannot be used outside of their area So residents raised every penny of this project from their own pockets Solicited funds from local business and all the neighbors On building day 35 adults did the heavy lifting and kids learned to sand and paint Nine hours later. They had 18 twin beds ready to go Other residents volunteered to deliver the bed And the mattresses to those in need throughout fort worth Congratulations, and thank you tahama ridge This next one is the mayor's civic engagement and Yeah community collaboration in the neighborhood association the voluntary association Once again, please stand when I call your name the greenway neighborhood association There they are They partnered with area churches and tcu fraternity members to make repairs on eight homes in their neighborhood For residents who were unable to do the repairs themselves because of health issues or income or both They held neighborhood-wide garage sales to raise funds for the greenway scholar program That provides lunches books and activity for children during the summer. Thank you The historic south side neighborhood association for its literacy carnival They sought to get books in the home of children who attend public schools in their neighborhood To boast their attitude about reading and their skills community partners Included the schools the faith-based organization the businesses and the government. There's a theme here on reading We're catching on on literacy. Thank you And the ridgely north neighborhood association for their community connection event When ridgely north surveyed its members they learned of their residents concerns about preventing crime And homelessness neighborhood leaders lined up speakers and information booths A key component gave residents the opportunity to don't donate toiletries canned goods and other items for nonprofits in their neighborhood who work with the homeless list. Thank you And the winner is historic south side neighborhood association Kelly She make your way up here councilwoman gray was with us, but I think she stepped away for a minute. So come on up I'll tell you a little bit more about theirs historic south side Has a standing education program that works with schools and after school programs In spot in response to the city's read for worth literacy program They came up with the idea of a literacy carnival It offered fun reading related games where children could win tickets for participating They could use those tickets to pick out books that they could take home to their very own home It was a true community collaboration with more groups Involved than we can mention here and when it was over historic south side and its partners had served 250 people mostly children Thrilled in pride to now have books of their own to enjoy at home. Congratulations And we follow the directions we are given Our next three awards will be going to um recognizing outstanding individuals I want to point out that none of these individuals were nominated by city staff or the elected officials All of the nominations came from you the neighborhood. So thank you for participating and recognizing Our staff and the and community members that make a difference The mayor's committee on persons with disabilities is a group of residents Volunteers who work with our city's human relations commission to make fort worth a more welcoming community for all They sponsored the dany scarth trailblazer award and we are honored to have mr. Scarth here with us tonight um I guess it just seems like an eye because It feels like i've been a for a long time The award is named for dany scarth who as most of you know as a former council member with the fort worth city council um This award recognizes someone who in their everyday life Raises awareness and makes a real change that improves the opportunities for people with disabilities And our finalists are Dorothy hill If you're here, please stand or raise your hand Dorothy has given hundreds of hours over the last five years to promoting high quality in-house care for people who depend on a ventilator She brought together physicians respiratory therapists and medical equipment providers Convincing them to serve as unpaid consultants to help improve care She has traveled to austin at her own expense to advocate before the texas health and human services commission on ventilator issues She's actually written a manual on community services and support for people using a ventilator And has succeeded in putting ventilator care improvements on the agenda at the state level Dorothy, thank you for your service Our other finalist is sarah martinez Sarah is an advocate for children for students with dyslexia a learning disability In addition to advocating for her two daughters She has helped hundreds of parents at fort worth isd Navigate the complexity of dyslexia in the public school system When dyslexic students began struggling with fort worth isd's achieve 3000 reading program Teachers and administrators weren't sure how to help Sarah contacted the program manufacturer Discovering that the program was capable of reading aloud to students now dyslexic students in many classrooms are Succeeding thanks to this program She has addressed the school board asked for funding and services She has also hosted an informational session for more than 100 parents Helping them understand their child's diagnosis and better accommodations She also helped found a facebook support group called decoding dyslexia Tarrant county, which has over 500 members And she has also partnered with the fort worth public library for dyslexia awareness day And the winner is sarah martinez Would you please come forward? And again, thank you to dorthy and sarah for all they do for our community The city's code compliance department is dedicated to maintaining fort worth as a clean and livable city Code officers routinely patrol assigned neighborhoods for code violations as well as investigate your complaints Our code officer of the year Recognizes an individual who in addition to investigating documenting and ensuring compliance with the city regulations Also responds to the public courteously and efficiently and maintains a great customer service relationships at all times Would officer tiffany taylor, please come forward Officer tiffany taylor was nominated by the historic south side neighborhood association. Would they please come up and join her for the picture? While they're coming up, i'll tell you a little bit more about tiffany To quote the historic south side's nomination officer taylor has kept the neighborhood association Informed of what buildings are slated to be reviewed and decided at a city level So that we can offer our support about specific buildings She works with building owners and residents alike to make positive change in our neighborhoods Officer taylor has been a code compliance officer for 22 years Congratulations to tiffany taylor our 2017 code officer of the year Our next individual gort award goes to the neighborhood patrol officer of the year This recognizes a special classification of police officer Npo's as we often call them do all the things a regular officer does But they provide those additional patrols and identify crime trends in specific neighborhoods or geographic areas that they're assigned to Npo's communicate with residents and business owners Attend community meetings and events and foster community leadership by recruiting volunteers for citizens on patrol Crime watch and other crime prevention programs They're often the most important link between our neighbors and the police department Well, the finalists, please stand and remain standing when i read your name adam cullman Sergio Guadirama bell hadad andrew johns alan pinnington And donald ship And our 2017 npo officer of the year is donald ship He was nominated by the east gate neighborhood neighbors association. So could you please come forward to join him in the picture? As they come forward, I'd like to read some of their comments about officer ship Since becoming our npo Officer ship has attended every one of our crime watch meetings He makes the time to attend whether it's convenient or not He speaks at every meeting takes questions and concerns and provides answers answers and knowledge another comment Our neighborhood is bounded on three sides by the west fork of the trinity river We have had issues We've had issues with crime and homelessness along the trails Officer ship frequently patrols the river trails in his fort worth truck and gives us updates Officer ship does preventive patrol in our neighborhood daily And during his patrol he stops to meet and visit with the neighbors. This simple fact is reassuring and a welcome site officer ship also helped with an attended east gates national night out meeting Assisted with the new dog walker watch program and is often seen picking up litter in the neighborhood Or wheeling a trash cart back to an elderly neighbor's door Congratulations to donald ship our npo of the year And thank you chief krouse for coming up even though I forgot to ask you to Chief it's jerald was here this morning for the workshops, but I know he had to leave before the lunch And so thank you chief krouse for stepping in Our final award today the neighborhood of the year recognizes excellence in all of the areas we've honored today I know for a lot of you, this is an unscripted. I'm going on script for a minute I know when you when you put the effort into You know writing an award and submitting it and and bragging about the good work being done in your neighborhoods That you want to win that award when when the time comes for your name to be called But please don't get discouraged Continue to apply for these awards our staff is available to help you Do your applications? To give you pointers on doing your applications. We won't do them for you But we can give you ideas on things to include and and how to how to package it and we can even show You examples of awards that have won in the past So I know it can be discouraging to not take home the the award But I want to encourage all of you to keep doing the good work And to keep nominating your neighborhood so that they can be recognized. So I'll go back to my script There the neighborhood of the year is being honored for collaborating with government businesses schools and other neighborhoods looking out for residents health and safety physical improvements beautification And the city of fort worth actually sends a representative from this neighborhood To the national neighborhoods usa convention so that they can compete for the national award And they're also able to attend lots of very very worthwhile workshops while they're there at the convention So I'd like to ask mayor price to present this final award and announce our winner Thank you, michelle Do we need a drum roll? There you go y'all are pretty good One of the things that impressed our judges this year about the 2017 neighborhood of the year Was that they really haven't been around very long While physical neighborhood was actually built in the 50s the neighborhood association fizzled years and years ago In 2015 a few residents decided to work with their community engagement office and re-established their neighborhood association They began to meet the needs of their community again In just two years. They reorganized Reconnected and launched a major project The neighborhood of the year is sunset heights Let me tell you just a little bit more about their neighborhood It's located in rolling hills, which require a huge concrete retaining wall at its south entrance Over the years the wall had become a target of graffiti and tagging The association leaders thought the mural might help and indeed it did become a work of public art The judges were impressed with your intentional and engaging way that this project came together Especially for a two-year-old neighborhood association They made deliberate choices in choosing the design and embracing the diversity in their community A colorful family friendly way for people to identify with their neighborhood Not designed by a single artist, but something that all neighbors and all ages had a hand in The steering committee reached out and engaged the neighborhood schools Made a traffic safety plan got refreshments refreshments donated and cleaned and prepped Getting ready for their big event over the course of eight hours more than 50 neighbors Help paint the squares that you saw earlier Quoting from their application it says the community fully embraced the mural on all levels That we did not even expect or anticipate Residents have boastfully posted pictures on their own facebook and twitter accounts Having the community be involved in the creation Instead of hiring an independent artist Instilled a sense of pride and a joy of collaboration Undertaken in no other community engagement project that they had done It attracted a lot of attention And depicted the neighborhood in a positive way So sunset hights congratulations Congratulations to all the winners and thank you mayor price Let's take a minute and recognize michelle good and katherine huckabee and their teams they worked They worked incredibly hard for months putting this together in addition to their regular jobs They piled this own and their team members willingly spent Several evenings and now they're saturdays putting this together So thank you both for what you do to engage our neighborhoods I would like to thank um our major sponsor for this event united health care Which allows us to offer all of these workshops in this wonderful In this wonderful facility and lunch At no expense to you the the neighborhoods and so I would like to ask scott Would uh scott flannery the ceo of the local united health care plan? Please come up so that you can say a few words Thank you michelle We are honored and humbled to be part of this so mayor price council members the staff We we thank you for allowing us to be part of it I didn't know what to expect this is the first time I've been to this event And it is astonishing what you all are able to do everyone that was nominated at one and award And what you've done in your communities, you know our our mission at united health care is to help people live healthier lives And part of that is being in vibrant communities and part of vibrant communities having great leadership Mayor price the self-proclaimed health nut That doesn't happen without leadership in any organization we see in our business When you have leaders who are committed To health and wellness and community you see that Prosper across the board and so Congrats to you and to your team and to your staff. What well done You know our goal really is an organization is to partner with with organizations like the city of fort worth And and those that are here today around building the vibrant communities I think when you look across the country when you have vibrant communities with supported businesses You see people prosper you see people grow but most importantly you see our youth See the world differently and and contribute to the world differently And so kudos to those that are here today that that have participated in that that's something that is Truly makes fort worth a great city and i'm hoping that you hit the goal of being the healthiest city in America because it seems like you're on the right right direction So without further ado, I think we had a a drawing for a amazon What's called a fire amazon fire and so we're gonna we're gonna draw a winner here with the assistance of vanna white I mean erin graves Everybody get your tickets out. So the question is do you have to be present to win? You have to be present to win all right So the winner of the amazon fire is 772844 There you go, come on I better hold on to that See we need you to rub it first and maybe that'll give us good luck to get amazon here, right So just some closing remarks if you were a finalist We do have certificates for you So if you would like to come up and get those afterwards and that does include our npo's as well as the neighborhoods who were finalists Um, thank you for coming today If you have any ideas on how we can make this a better event, we are always welcome to hear them I'd also like to give a plug for Many of you have probably know that the city has a race and culture task force And over the next month, we're hosting 14 community meetings for people to come out tell their stories And allow others to hear those stories and hopefully make a difference in our community Estra's Tucker has been working with us. He did two workshops today, but he's also chosen Facilitators for all of these meetings. We had our first one Thursday. It was a small group But I think there was a lot of really heartfelt communication that went on between people So we have a list of the meetings outside on the table If you're able to attend or if you want to spread the word in your neighborhoods The more people we get around the table talking about tough issues the bigger changes we can make so thank you Thank you for coming The mayor's community engagement workshops and awards are presented each year by the city of fort worth In conjunction with many community partners for more information visit fort worth texas.gov slash engagement