Leadership Putnam will celebrate the completion of 13 newly installed park benches throughout the town of Monterey Wednesday.
Project Participant Chris Hedrick said the benches are installed across different locations, with three of the locations being at Meadow Creek Park, Whitaker Park, and Bee Rock. Hedrick said the benches give people the chance to enjoy the beauty that Monterey has to offer. Hedrick said he and his group wanted to do a Leadership Putnam project that was different.
“Sometimes Baxter and Monterey aren’t in the forefront of the mind when people think about Putnam County,” Hedrick said. “And then as we had done some searches, we had found out that there had been some projects in Baxter, a lot of projects in Cookeville, but what we had found that there wasn’t any in Monterey, and we just felt like okay that’s what we need to do.”
Hedrick said the group titled the project “Making a Mark on Monterey.” Hedrick said Monterey and Putnam County leadership believe the project has made a mark.
“I was able to talk to Mayor Garcia about it, and he was thrilled to know that there were others that were thinking about the city of Monterey and how to enhance it,” Hedrick said. “You know, we have also talked to other leaders in Putnam County that are from Monterey or currently living in Monterey, and they were equally as enthralled about the fact that you know, the making it better to you know, leaving it better than you came type of of deal and what we can do to enhance not only Monterey but Putnam County for that matter.”
Alongside Hedrick, Audrie Garton, Brittany Key, Cliff Wightman, and Donna Kernell helped with the project. Hedrick said enhancing communities is what Leadership Putnam is all about.
“Any time that you can have the ability to serve in general right, it’s always super exciting,” Hedrick said. “I mean there does come the heartaches and the headaches with it but every bit of it is always worth it knowing that being able to serve others and hopefully create a really good impact I mena it’s just heartwarming, it’s fulfilling, I mean it’s just an amazing feeling.”
Other bench locations Monterey Depot Museum, Monterey High School, Standing Stone Care and Rehabilitation Center.
The ribbon-cutting will take place at Meadow Creek Park on Wednesday at 10am.
