Dedication Speech

Thanks to the over 40 Dear Friends who attended the Dedication of Parsons Preserve April 6.  It was a perfect day and a good time was had by all.

We are grateful to our Dear Friends who have sent many of their photos of the event.  Likewise, numerous Dear Friends have left inspiring comments on various Facebook posts.  Some have asked to read our speech at the dedication.

We did set up a digital voice recorder but it malfunctioned so we do not have an actual, verbatim record of what was said by each of the speakers.  We produced an outline for our own remarks and it appears below.  However, bear in mind that we never speak from a script--never have, never will. After much reflection about an upcoming speech, we write a narrative that provides guidance for our remarks.  We often glance at the narrative to remind our self to stay on topic and cover the primary talking points we hope to convey.   We often stray into extemporaneous tangents and topics but generally return to the main theme outlined in the pre-speech narrative.

Speakers at the Dedication included: Steve  Ayers, Wayne Ranney, John Parsons, Tony Gioia, Marsha Foutz, Wes Girard and Susun McCulla.  Each speaker delivered fine & eloquent remarks. Ayers and Ranney spoke more than once.  We occasionally interjected comments before or after each of the above speakers.

Thus, you can easily see the difficulty in presenting "a copy of our speech" as has been requested.  No such copy exists.

Even though the narrative below is not a verbatim rendition of the actual speech delivered, it does cover the salient points we wished to make.  We intended to focus on numerous individuals for their personal contributions to preservation of The Verde River.  However, we fell short in this goal by only mentioning a few of those listed.

The speech outline begins below the dash line.  Any type in BOLD ITALIC has been added during preparation of this blog post to help readers understand what may have been said...or not said.
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Welcome to The Verde River Family Reunion!

All you Verde River Moms, Dads, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Grand kids—Welcome to The Verde River Family Reunion.

It's great to see so many of The Verde River's Best Friends & Family here today.

We came back to the theme of the Verde River Family Reunion more than once.

Many Thanks to Steve Ayers for his efforts to create this Preserve and organize this event. Many Thanks to Wayne for coming all the way from New Zealand just yesterday especially to attend and speak here today!

Each & every one of you has done so much to help preserve, enjoy and celebrate this river and these beloved lands alongside. Some of the Friends & Family here today began boating and loving The River when they were kids—people like Jake Cecil and Reed Allen. Today Jake & Reed are part of the multi-generational legacy of support that The Verde River enjoys.
The Allen Family in particular spans four generations of lives along and with The River and they have contributed so much is ways at would take all day or several days to describe.

Discuss Dan Engler/Verde Newspaper, Kim/Nature Conservancy Chip/Drink Beer-Save Water/, Tony/TOCV Mayor, Diane/Cottonwood Mayor/Almanac, Wes/River Access.

We were able to highlight Chip, Tony, Wes, Dexter, Jake and Reed.  We missed many of the others we intended to discuss and Thank.

Once upon a time, The Verde River had no Friends. This Preserve is named for me because we helped The River make Friends. We started the snowball rolling and now The Verde River has countless Friends here there and everywhere. Friends who enjoy all The River has to offer and Friends work tirelessly to keep The River Flowing Free Forever.

First & foremost: I am forever honored by the Camp Verde Town Council's naming of this river channel property and especially Steve & Wayne's efforts in that regard.. I am deeply grateful and appreciative of this recognition for my efforts to “save” The Verde River. I am grateful for each and everyone of you who took time out of your busy Saturday to attend today's dedication. To be with The Verde River Family on a special day in a special place is truly special. THANK YOU!

Second: The “saving” of The Verde River was only possible with the combined, continued, dedicated and passionate efforts over many years by many people and organizations. Forty years ago there were no organizations working on behalf of The Verde River. Now there are more groups than I can name.

Third: I believe Parsons Preserve should provide lasting recognition for the effects, value and importance of community collaboration on behalf of the shared resources of The Verde River and its multi-faceted watershed.

Lastly: The development of Parsons Preserve offers a unique opportunity to showcase both individual and collective determination to conserve The Verde River and its resources for future generations. Although The Verde River Family gathered here today for this reunion and dedication love and enjoy The River, it's he future generations who stand to benefit the most from our collective efforts to preserve The River can create special places such as this one.

There are many cultural & natural resource topics that can be covered in Parsons Preserve. The challenge will be to balance those topics with the spirit of community collaboration so that Parsons Preserve is not too cluttered with an overabundance of interpretive information.

I hope this Preserve gets to speak with its own voice in its own way. Our goal was always simply to get people on the rive because we knew the river would speak to them with its own voice in its own way and at did.

So, ultimately, I hope this can be a place where The river and the riparian can speak in their own way to people who come here.

I hope that Parsons Preserve becomes and remains forever an inviting area for individuals and Families to visit and utilize for reflection, education and camaraderie together alongside The Verde River.

We did get a chance to tell the below homespun anecdote and it drew quite a hearty laugh from the attendees.

CA McDonald, Loft Holloman, Tap Parsons, Carter Rogers, Henry Shill, Woody Diehl, Bob Barker sittin' around Saint Pete's Cafe and I pull up a chair to chat with The Good Ol' Boys. By and by I say, “You know what, guys? Someday The Camp Verde Town Council is gonna name a park for me!” HAHAHA

In closing this blog post narrative, we might add that the speech was well received and numerous attendees spoke favorably about it.  No one seemed to notice that I forgot to recognize so many deserving individuals.  We will soon be posting all of the photos that have been sent to a Google Photos album.  Thank You for your interest in the speech and THANK YOU for your love and efforts on behalf of The Verde River.