Grand Rapids' 175th Birthday

Special Events Manager with the City of Grand Rapids Evette Pittman joins us to discuss this weekend's celebration for the city of Grand Rapids' 175th Birthday!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
With the City of Grand Rapids vat Pittman is back. Evett,
thanks for coming in today.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Thank you so much for.

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Me so talk to us a little bit about the
stuff that folks can It's just right out our window, absolutely,
we could see it from here.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
What's coming up on Saturday?

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Well, this Saturday, June seventh, at Rosa Park Circle, we
will be celebrating the city's one hundred and seventy fifth birthday.
And what does that mean? I mean, what do you
have at a birthday party? You have stilt walkers and
jugglers and face painters and balloon artists, lots of community
partners with fun giveaways, and of of.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Course cake gotta have cake.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Absolutely, so there will be cake and cupcakes and ice cream, popcorn, popsicles,
all kinds of wonderful stuff for folks and it's all free.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Well there it is we bury the lead I should
have instead of focusing on the Dodra thing, I should
have said a free event this weekend and that will
really help spread the word.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Absolutely, and we will have entertainment. Cabildo will be there
as well as the Nathan Walton and the Remedy Band
and DJ Venus, fly Trap Wow yes, yes, lots of
great partners will be out there.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
It's just a name. They're very safe.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Absolutely, it'll be fine and we will sing Happy Birthday
to the City of Grand Rapids. So we're hoping that
everyone will come and join us, have a great time
and celebrate the city.

Speaker 4 (01:23):
You know, everyone thinks of the basics, right event, where
Grand River City was built around, you know, lumber industry,
and you know, then it's grown into this beautiful thing.
There's the west side. But when you go back and
look at it. We did this with our own radio
station turning one hundred this year or i should say
last fall. Is the fact that eighteen fifty this all

(01:45):
started one hundred and seventy five years and I'm sure
you're uncovering as we talked to historians too, things that
maybe we didn't know about Grand Rapids that are all
going to be part of the celebration.

Speaker 3 (01:54):
And you can make a poster about it if you
want to.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Absolutely, we will have a poster contest it's actually going
on now that anyone can enter. You don't have to
be an artist, you can be an artist at heart
and you can enter this poster contest to make the
commemorative poster that will be displayed at City Hall for
all of eternity as far as we know right and yes,
that poster contest is going on now. We will reveal

(02:19):
the winner at Art Prize. But I also wanted to
share our archivis has uncovered one hundred and seventy five
iconic images for one hundred and seventy five years, and
those images will be on display at the birthday party.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
That's cool, it is because you get to see how
the change is sort of morphed into what it is.
There's a couple of pictures in this building that's been
around for an awful long time as well where we're
broadcasting from and you can see, you know, even one
hundred years ago. There are a couple of buildings a
church up on Michigan that have been here for that
whole time. But you go back one hundred and seventy

(02:54):
five years, not so much, but you've probably had a
pretty cool view and been able to see some of
those before anybody else.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Absolutely, And one of the pictures that will be on
display Saint Mark's Church is the original Saint Mark's Church
that is still standing over there off a Division Street. Wow,
and that is one of the images, and then there's
a QR code that you can click on and you
can learn more about all those different images.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Have you seen Mayor Legrand relatively new now to the
City of the Grand Rabits and practicing juggling. Is he
going to do anything besides just give a little speech
about the event.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
I don't want to spoiler alert this thing.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
But well, there will be a mayoral proclamation and then
we will actually have some federal, state, and city elected
officials there and so they will share a few words
about the city and just what public service means and
how we all have come together and unity and that's
why this city has lasted one hundred and seventy five years.

Speaker 4 (03:53):
I would love to know the stat and probably somebody
does know this. Of new structures, we're talking major structures.
Are buildings that we've had. I would say, what Steve
in the last twenty five years that we've kind of
worked downtown.

Speaker 3 (04:06):
Look at the cranes right now.

Speaker 4 (04:08):
Yeah, we always talk about Van Andel Arena, but you
know when you look at the Amphitheater, look at the
landscape the JW I remember when that was built and
how we actually have now a landscape of a city
to look at, not just the Amway Hotel.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
Absolutely, and it's ever changing, right. We have the towers
that are coming and like you said, the Amphitheater and
the soccer stadium. That's the thing about Grand Rapids. We
always evolve, right, we always are changing. So it was
lumber was the industry, right, furniture, and now we're beer
city and who knew craft beer would be such a

(04:42):
big thing all around the world, not just here on
Grand Rapid.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
Can Mark Washington. Juggle. Let me ask you this.

Speaker 4 (04:49):
I think Steve wants to juggle.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
I think he wants to nominate himself.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
Fravor out of time special events manager with the City
of Grand Rapids. Event Pittman, welcome back anytime. Thank you
for coming in today, Thank you for having me