Spring Fling, Car Show and Pet Parade Brings a Crowd... and department units together

Weather can make or break the success of an outdoor Park Special Event... and in April and May in Las Vegas, the weather could be a crap-shoot. It could be a nice sun-shiny day OR it could be overcast with 50 mph winds. Last year our Spring Fling special event at Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs was rained out about an hour early. The crowd dispersed while vendors packed up their tents and homegoods before the event was scheduled to end. This year though, we had a perfectly executed event with a few dozen vendors and beautiful weather. It was amazing!

So was the turnout! The community really came out in full force for this event In addition to the artisan vendors and local businesses, we had a car show that featured a variety of antique cars. Even the least enthusiastic car enthusiast would have enjoyed this collection of classic cars. We also had a fun pet parade that showcased many dogs and even a cat in their favorite costumes. Our local Councilwoman also invited a couple of animal shelters to attend the event to increase pet adoptions.

While I didn't have a hand in planning this particular event, which was put together by our Council Special Events team, I think it is a great example of how Special Events impacts everyone that works in Parks and Rec and ways we work together to serve the community better.

For example, this event, held on a busy Spring weekend was attended by at least a thousand park visitors. Traffic to the front entrance of the park was so backed up that people were parking along side streets in the neighborhood outside the park and walking in. Seeing the long line, suspecting neighborhood discontent and concerned for the potential for accident/injury with people walking across a busy road, as supervisor for the Gate House staff, I instructed those working to go ahead and waive people in without charging the $6 entry fee and without tallying up the number of cars and people coming in for the event. So what...we didn't get an exact head count... but people had a better experience from the time they arrived and no one was injured or exhausted from walking into the park from half a mile away. Plus, the Gate House staff didn't have to stress about long lines or keeping tabs on attendance.

Our Parks & Grounds Maintenance (PGM) team also feels the impact with really large gatherings... by that I mean events over 500 people on already busy days. Concerned that people don't know about our "Pack in, Pack out" policy and the extra waste that an abundance of people bring, our PGM weekend supervisor provided trash bags for the Gate House staff to hand out to park patrons. Life is always better when we understand each other's concerns and work together to offset those concerns.

Our PGM weekend supervisor and Gate House staff working together and with our Council Special Events team. Gate House staff handed out flyers to promote the Spring Fling. Here, Jody is rolling up trash bags with the "Park Rules" one-sheet that I had our Department Director review/approve and Graphics/Communication create. Then we handed them out to our park goers so we have minimal clean up, which means less work for our small PGM clean up crew, less impact on the animals in our nature park and to increase the sustainability of providing large-scale special events.

Large Park Special Events, those that bring hundreds and even thousands of people, are great for the community, but no always great for the environment. However, by working together within our department and with the public, we can "Build Community to Make Life Better."