Town employees recognized at annual lunch event

On June 21, the town of Longboat Key’s employees gathered at the St. Mary, Star of the Sea reception hall for the annual employee recognition luncheon. 

Employees from all of the town’s departments enjoyed a taco bar while conversing with staff from other departments for the event which Town Manager Howard Tipton said is important to recognize the hard work of the employees. 

“This town is a premier community, but that doesn’t happen without each of you,” Tipton said in his address to the employees. 

After lunch, the staff members participated in relay games to win more prizes for the raffle. All of the raffle prizes — including over $2,000 in gift cards — were donated by department heads and town commissioners as a way to say thank you. 

This year’s theme was sports, so employees were encouraged to wear attire representing their favorite sports team. 

Support Services Director Carolyn Brown organized the event and said many of the new ideas for this year, like the taco bar and relay games, came from the recent ENGAGE Program, which was the town’s first employee professional development program. 

With peak season officially behind them, Tipton said the event was a way to take a deliberate pause in the workflow to recognize the staff’s hard work and accomplishments over the past year. 

“A lot of the time we don’t pause and say thank you,” Tipton said. “It’s important, and I think it's always the small things that mean the most.”