People, as a rule, love nothing more than receiving awards. “Look at all the good we’ve done!”

Don’t let anyone kid you: Getting credit for things, not baseball, is the national pastime.

That’s why we like the fact that Brookfield’s community spirit and its penchant for volunteerism were recognized by the state’s Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity with a Governor’s Hometown Award.

While the award would not have been possible without the support of Brookfield government and the willingness of beautification commission Chairwoman Nicole Gilhooley to slog through the lengthy application and approval process, what sold the state agency was the citizenry of Brookfield itself.

Brookfield, in our experience, depends more upon volunteers than most communities to handle such things as park and field maintenance. What other town, for example, has a man – let’s call him Roy Overholt – who decade after decade tends daily to a single baseball field each summer.

It’s as if it’s his own personal field. Brookfield seems to think of it that way – they named it after Overholt.

There are numerous municipalities that host cleanup days – typically around Earth Day – to pick up trash and generally spruce up a tad. In Brookfield, about 300 people turn out, from grade school nature groups to church groups and youth baseball teams. The throng includes seniors and children.

These are the people who won the award for Brookfield. Every year the turnout is stronger, and every year more people want to try and make a piece of Brookfield look a little nicer for their neighbors.

Yard work is no fun. It’s bad enough that homeowners have to tend to their own properties without worrying about the village’s. But the connections created by such events as Project NICE, the annual spring cleanup event for which Brookfield won the Governor’s Hometown Award, are what make communities home.

Congratulations to all of the volunteers who have participated in the event year after year. This time, you get the credit.

 

One more thing …

Speaking of credit and of beautification efforts, we’d also like to pass along kudos to village staff, officials and Barbara Weyrick for righting a wrong over at Ehlert Park. In August, Weyrick was dismayed to find that the memorial garden dedicated to her parents, Martha and Tony Kesman, had withered away.

While the village made an attempt to spruce it up (for the benefit of judges coming in for the Hometown award), it has now been replanted. Most important, there’s also a protocol for maintaining the garden so that it doesn’t fall through the cracks again.

Thanks, Barb, for holding the village accountable. And thanks, Brookfield, for responding diligently.