Governor Patrick, thanks for coming
I thought about writing this blog since Thursday, the day after Governor Deval Patrick visited us at the Worcester DC; I needed to write it while the memories were still fresh. It was an amazing experience!
On Tuesday afternoon, I received a call from Nancy, of the Office of External Relations and University Events, that the governor would like to have lunch with our students. She also mentioned that the governor had recently read a story about some of the dining services on campus, and was interested in having lunch in the Worcester Dining Commons after the Young Adult Forum. I was excited, but my first thought was what we needed to do to pull it off since we only had one day to get ready. We also had the White House pastry chef on campus for the same week as part of the guest chef special.
It was to be a milestone for the governor to visit the DC and try some of our food. We wanted to showcase UMass Dining as much as possible and let the governor see for himself what the DC is all about.
I emailed my managers and had a meeting with them to go through the planned routine. We thought that features of our program, such as sustainability, stealth health and world cuisine might be of interest to the governor. Everyone was excited about the visit and eager to “showoff”, just a little. And as luck would have it, the former White House pastry chef, being on campus at the same time as the governor, was a bonus.
On Wednesday morning, I arrived a bit early to make sure we were ready for the event. Tim, our manager at Worcester, had a nice UMass apple display already set up when I arrived. I went on and reviewed the set up of each station with him. We wanted everything to be perfect.
Around noon, a plain-clothed state trouper arrived and we had a brief chat about security. Then it really set in, that the governor was indeed coming.
We had a busy lunchtime for the students, as always, from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm and with the upcoming visit at 1:15, we thought we were more than ready. At, 1:30 we got a text message that the governor was going to be a bit late, and to plan for 2:00 pm. That was great, as we even had a little more time to get ready. Over 100 students came to gather around the front entrance to greet the governor; we also encouraged students in the Hillside room to join the governor for lunch. I also asked my managers to form a greeting line.
At 1:45, another text came in; the governor would be here around 2:20.
Then at 2:00, I received a call that the governor that he would not be able to come afterall, since he had a meeting in Holyoke at 3:00; but he would like us to prepare something to take out and would like to meet me in person. I was disappointed but fully understood the governor’s hectic schedule. Staff started to prepare take out lunches and I mentioned to the students the governor would not be able to come and thanked them for their patience.
Suddenly, I got a message from student Mike, that the Governor would be coming afterall, as he realized at that point, hundreds of students were waiting to see him. I was so happy and immediately make an announcement to the waiting students that the governor would be arriving shortly. I went outside the DC and prepared to greet him.
Then came the governor with our chancellor. I greeted the both of them and welcomed the governor to UMass Dining. When we both walked into the DC, the students were so happy they clapped their hands. One of our student staff provided the governor with a cup of mulled apple cider and another presented him a famous warm whole-wheat chocolate cookie. The governor seemed to really enjoy the token of appreciation and he took some time to tour each station with me. He was impressed with the Buy Local program and the amount of healthy options available to our students. He commented about the choices and could not believe what he saw. On our way, he was stopped by students for a photo op and our guest Chef from the White House even presented the governor with a cook book he authored and signed it “from the White House to the Governor’s House”.
Everyone enjoyed the short visit tremendously; I was so proud of our staff and the students who went out of their way to welcome our governor. Thank you for coming Governor Patrick, come back anytime!
This is Ken Toong and thank you for keeping UMass Dining at the top.
Ken Toong
Director
Contact Ken at ktoong@mail.aux.umass.edu
You can follow Ken Toong on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/KenToong