These three words have impressed me as I’ve interviewed over 100 people as part of my preparation to serve on the City Council. While I’ve focused primarily on infrastructure on previous blogs, I want to draw attention to these words that mean so much to our City and towards the values we’d like to sustain as we grow.

Hard Work & Service

Founded on the backs of homesteaders, Mapleton has a rich cultural history of hard work and service. Settlers arrived to the Union Bench area in the mid-1800s and Mapleton City was incorporated in 1948. We’ve managed to retain those cultural nuances that both celebrate our heritage and grow our futures.  Our challenge is to determine how best to continue this legacy – this feeling – through a period of dramatic growth.

It’s said that culture eats strategy for breakfast. As a strategist, I’ve consulted with dozens of businesses and organizations to discover this is only a partial truth.  In fact, the best strategies deliberately address culture in their planning.  For example, you cannot simply wish for a service-oriented environment; rather, you must build in behaviors that model the desired outcomes and budget accordingly. Therefore, culture AND strategy are breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Investing in Culture & Community

We must be deliberate in integrating strategies which support our culture, heritage, and community.  If we value the safe, small-town environment and the friendly atmosphere, we need to have measurable outcomes which demonstrate that commitment.  For example, we’re coming up on our biggest event of the year with our day-long Pioneer Day celebrations. This day alone is evidence of those original cultural values – hard work and service. Hundreds of volunteers, tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of in-kind and cash donations, and thousands of attendees unite to celebrate our culture, heritage, and community. Most important are the connections we make and renew which increase our affection for our neighbors and bolster our pride in the community.

We see other strategic initiatives related to these priorities in our Parks and Recreation department, which is constantly working to add and improve services, our Music in the Park series, historic homes, museum, our Historical Society, et cetera.  As funding permits, I would support additional investments in the arts, such as increasing the display of local artwork in and around public facilities and cost-effective community arts and music classes in the community center.

Historic Town Square

One project in which I’m particularly interested is the Mapleton Historic Town Square.  This project, which is designed to honor our founding citizens and educate our community, is an opportunity for us to rally together once more through hard work and service.  Our Historical Society has obtained significant government support (courtesy of Representative Francis Gibson’s efforts) and donations to build the Town Square, yet more is needed.  An additional $150,000 and hundreds of volunteers will complete the vision for this project, which project I believe represents our efforts to sustain those three precious words:  culture, heritage, community.

So, save the date for Saturday, September 7 from 4-8PM for the Mapleton Historic Town Square fundraising event and Founders Day celebration.  There will be an old fashioned barn raising, dinners, shopping, silent and live auction, dancing, and more.  This will be a wonderful family and community event. 

In addition to attending, the Historical Society needs support in the following:

• Donations from individuals and businesses for the silent and live auctions.
• Cash donations.
• Artifact donations (period pieces to be displayed).
• Volunteers

For more information or to donate, contact Mary Fojtek at 801.589.0929 or gmbakbak@gmail.com.

Our positive culture, heritage, and community are priceless.  However, I encourage our city leadership to continue investing in related initiatives to ensure our future citizens may enjoy the service-oriented, hardworking atmosphere that we currently enjoy. 

Finally, if you haven’t gotten a chance to learn about our rich heritage, check out the 2015 Mapleton photo publication by April Clawson and Kjirstin Youngberg. (You’ll feel a whole new sense of community!)