It's been a few months running for the Carlsbad Chamber Fire Hydrant Program. On the last day of January, a downtown fire hydrant tour, reception and awards recognition ceremony took place hosted courtesy of the Carlsbad Inn.
Now that the excitement of the project has cooled to a simmer, the business professionals of downtown Carlsbad sound off on their thoughts and feelings toward the entire project itself and the future of the village with the new painted hydrants in its midst.
John Simons of Anastasi Development could not find enough superlatives to describe his feelings about the program.
"What can I say? It was phenomenal, outstanding, creative, innovative, in short I loved it."
Simons said that he believes the painted hydrants will really bring awareness to the village. In adopting a hydrant he looked for ways to spread community involvement to others. He found it. Simons used, as his artists to paint his adopted hydrant, the Carlsbad High School Interact Club. Interact is sponsored by the Rotary Club and as an Interact facilitator, Simons put two and two together and got a beautiful sea-themed hydrant outside of his development.
"Its so obvious how this community involvement thing works yet very few people actually go out and make it happen. This type of program brought together, business owners with artists, who in turn reeled in tourists and shoppers, who in turn garnered media attention. Do you see where I'm going with this?"
His was a fact hard to miss. Another hard to miss element of the fire hydrant project was the beauty it brought to the village. Business owner Gina Stark of Madison Carlsbad Village commented on this very thing.
"I think the whole thing was just a completely fun idea," says Stark. "It allowed us to beautify are downtown village and it instigated artistic expression."
Stark's adopted hydrant is of her signature scroll. She also had an artist paint her concept for her.
"I'm a very do-it-yourself, hands-on kind of woman so I was a little wary at first of having someone else come in and paint this hydrant for me. But she took my idea, my concept, and transferred it beautifully into a masterpiece. I didn't know you could make a hydrant look like that. It was like she took my mental image of what I wanted and painted it."
Stark, pleased with the outcome of the hydrant project, hopes that this will get the ball rolling on more similar programs and events.
"I think what we need is a sense of pride. Beautifying our community and being civic-minded will really bring the village together. This is just the start."
So, take a walk around the village. Look at the hydrants, wave to the shop owners, stop in and say hi even. Know that this is your community and there is always room for improvement. The fire hydrant project is proof of that, and that's just the start.
Now that the excitement of the project has cooled to a simmer, the business professionals of downtown Carlsbad sound off on their thoughts and feelings toward the entire project itself and the future of the village with the new painted hydrants in its midst.
John Simons of Anastasi Development could not find enough superlatives to describe his feelings about the program.
"What can I say? It was phenomenal, outstanding, creative, innovative, in short I loved it."
Simons said that he believes the painted hydrants will really bring awareness to the village. In adopting a hydrant he looked for ways to spread community involvement to others. He found it. Simons used, as his artists to paint his adopted hydrant, the Carlsbad High School Interact Club. Interact is sponsored by the Rotary Club and as an Interact facilitator, Simons put two and two together and got a beautiful sea-themed hydrant outside of his development.
"Its so obvious how this community involvement thing works yet very few people actually go out and make it happen. This type of program brought together, business owners with artists, who in turn reeled in tourists and shoppers, who in turn garnered media attention. Do you see where I'm going with this?"
His was a fact hard to miss. Another hard to miss element of the fire hydrant project was the beauty it brought to the village. Business owner Gina Stark of Madison Carlsbad Village commented on this very thing.
"I think the whole thing was just a completely fun idea," says Stark. "It allowed us to beautify are downtown village and it instigated artistic expression."
Stark's adopted hydrant is of her signature scroll. She also had an artist paint her concept for her.
"I'm a very do-it-yourself, hands-on kind of woman so I was a little wary at first of having someone else come in and paint this hydrant for me. But she took my idea, my concept, and transferred it beautifully into a masterpiece. I didn't know you could make a hydrant look like that. It was like she took my mental image of what I wanted and painted it."
Stark, pleased with the outcome of the hydrant project, hopes that this will get the ball rolling on more similar programs and events.
"I think what we need is a sense of pride. Beautifying our community and being civic-minded will really bring the village together. This is just the start."
So, take a walk around the village. Look at the hydrants, wave to the shop owners, stop in and say hi even. Know that this is your community and there is always room for improvement. The fire hydrant project is proof of that, and that's just the start.