TERRY BENJAMIN T&D Intern
The city of St. Matthews will host its first community celebration this weekend. It is presented as an opportunity for city officials and the community to come together.
“I think it’s a great opportunity to bring the community together,” said the mayor of St. Matthews, Helen Carson-Peterson.
“We can sit around all day and talk about what we think is best for the citizens, but you know, unless you have dialogue with them, unless you talk to them, you don’t really know what their needs are,” Carson-Peterson. said
The community celebration will take place on Saturday, September 10 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the ball field at the John Ford Community Center.
The event will feature a corn, food, drink and cotton candy tournament. For the kids, they’ll have games, bounce houses and entertainment.
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Many figures from the local community will be there, including the mayor, police chief and fire chief.
“We’ve been discussing how important we feel it was so necessary to bring our community together in one way or another,” Carson-Peterson said.
“We felt that people would have a sense of belonging, because a lot of times we have these government entities, for example, the police department, the fire department and whatever else is in the city and even the county, and even. even though the citizens are responsible and pay these people’s salaries, they don’t really know what they’re doing. And a lot of times they don’t even go to them,” Carson-Peterson said.
“We felt like if we could have an opportunity where we could all come together and we could talk, we could have fun together. We’ll eat together, all these things that people will have, they’ll have that sense of belonging,” Carson-Peterson said.
Having a relationship between citizens and government is important to a functioning community, he said.
The celebration is a creation of the police and fire departments of St. Matthews, along with the newly created events committee in the city.
For Fire Chief Greg Sanklin, the event is important to show people that departments exist and are there to help.
“I just wanted it to be a day of appreciation for the citizens of the city and to let them know that we’re behind them and we’re there to help them with whatever they need,” Sanklin said.
Sanklin said it’s important for the city to have a relationship with the community.
“If we don’t have the support of the community, it’s harder for us to get the equipment and the training and everything that we need to serve the community,” Sanklin said.
Terry Benjamin II, a senior mass communications major at Claflin University, reports for The Times and Democrat as a news and sports intern sponsored by Lee Enterprises.
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