The competition was fierce. But, when all of the cans of peas, boxes of linguine and packages of Ramen noodles were counted, the City Hall Challenge trophy found a new home – the Treasury.
Treasurer Liz Craveiro
The Treasury, led by City Treasurer Liz Craveiro whipped the reigning champion Department of Planning and Development team, led by inspector Dave Ouellette, like a bag of Yukon gold potatoes, collecting 1120 non-perishable food items for the Merrimack Valley Food Bank.
DPD collected 476 items. Added to the contributions of other city departments that participated including the Career Center, Pollard Memorial Library, City Manager’s Office and Mayor’s Office, the grand total came in at about 2,500 items.
How competitive are Liz and Dave?
I will let you peek in on an internal City Hall email exchange that makes the point:
From Dave:
“I know your dept would like to have it (the trophy) in their office but you need to BEET us . What is this thing you call rules, so here we go lets TURNIP the competition none of us wants EGG on our faces. Will you LETTUCE win again or will some other department SQUASH us time will tell. Let the games begin come on DPD.”
Liz’s response:
“DPD set the STEAKS high last year. Treasury plans to ROLL over everyone this year and BEEF it up. Only the ends results will LETTUCE decide who will have the bragging rights.”
Liz and Dave hug it out.
Regardless of where the trophy sits for the next 12 months, the real winner is the Merrimack Valley Food Bank, which supplies 3 million pounds of food annually to 80 shelters, pantries and meals programs in 25 area communities.
Donations are accepted year-round in Lowell at the Greater Lowell Chamber of Commerce at 131 Merrimack St., the Central Fire Station at 99 Moody St. and the Merrimack Valley Food Bank at 735 Broadway.
For more information visit http://www.mvfb.org.
Room 50 