Burleson holds first annual Parks Maintenance Rodeo
Event showcases parks maintenance team's skills to community in a fun and family-friendly way.
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BURLESON – The Burleson parks and recreation department held its first annual “Parks Maintenance Rodeo” Thursday at Chisenhall Fields.
The rodeo showcased the parks maintenance team’s skills as staff competed in events using a backpack blower, backhoe, truck and trailer and a zero-turn mower.
The parks maintenance team chose a rodeo for their National Parks and Recreation Month event to provide the community with something fun and family-friendly while showcasing their skills, parks superintendent Daniel Shafer said.
“We want to show that we don’t just mow, blow and go during the year,” Shafer said.
Parks and recreation director Jen Basham said the event turnout was great considering it was the department’s first parks maintenance rodeo and could be greater once more people understand it.
Parks and recreation would love to include other departments in future maintenance rodeos, Basham said.
“We’re, of course, just parks, but public works, streets, water, they all have skilled craftsmen that work really hard as well,” Basham said. “It’d be great to kind of compete against them.”
This rodeo gave the parks maintenance team a chance to practice for regional and state maintenance rodeos they compete in. This rodeo was a great team-builder for those events, Basham said.
“This is a great opportunity for them to get to practice their skills and show the community all the work that it really takes to do what they do everyday,” Basham said.
Shafer was excited to see the parks maintenance team test their skills in different ways.
“It’s different than, yes, it’s relatable to the skills they do on a daily basis, but we don’t go through obstacle courses and do all this,” Shafer said. “So I think [it’s] just giving them a challenge and something fun to do outside of just a normal job.”
National Parks and Recreation Month allows the parks and recreation department to showcase how passionate it is about serving the community, Basham said.
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What a fun event!
Wow! The rodeo sounds cool. When I first heard about it I really had no idea what it was so it didn’t interest me. I wish I had gone. Thank you for covering this