Love this picture of the fireworks and lightning this year from the walkway over the Hudson.
Tag Archives: walkway
IBM’s Day of Service at the Poughkeepsie Farm Project
Thursday is the IBM Centennial, when IBM as a company turns 100 years old. It’s a pretty amazing thing. I’ve got my own set of reflections on that which will come later, because my brain is currently entirely focussed on what comes first: the IBM Day of Service.
This year all IBMers were asked to pledge at least 8 hours of service to their communities, and if possible, to do that service on June 15th, the last day of the first century of IBM. Through a series of fortuitous happenings I got involved as a service leader for this day, organizing 3 projects at the Poughkeepsie Farm Project. On Wednesday we’ll have 30 volunteers at the farm starting at 7am. I’ve already interacted quite a bit with some amazing volunteers who are helping in the planning to make this possible, and it just puts me in awe at how many truly talented and giving people work at the company. We are seriously going to kick ass and take names on Wednesday, and do a lot of great work for a great organization.
I’m also really happy to be introducing so many new IBMers to the PFP. When I signed up for leading these projects I assumed I’d largely be picking up IBMers already associated with the farm. But, much to my surprise, the ranks are filled with people not associated with the farm at all. Many have never been to the location, and didn’t even know it existed. The folks that have gotten involved early have really gotten invested in the organization already, and it’s my hope that at least a few of them will become long term volunteers as part of the organization once they see the work the PFP does in the community.
We’re going to kick off this great day of service on Wednesday with a Walkway event on Tuesday afternoon, so starting about 2:30 tomorrow, I’m full time service volunteer until Thursday rolls around, and we celebrate 100 years on site in Poughkeepsie.
Pictures will be forthcoming, as well as more reflections once my brain can switch gears again. Now just a few last minute things to take care of in preparation of the day…
The Willis Ave Bridge on the Hudson
The replacement for the Willis Ave Bridge was floated down the Hudson River yesterday, from it’s building facility up north of Catskill NY. To get something like this down river they had to weld 2 barges together, and use 3 tugs to keep it on track.
The whole event, for the few of us that came out for it, was great. I ended up chatting and joking with 3 other completely random folks near where the AP had set up their video camera. It was that perfect sense of community, even though no one knew each other, we were there for a common event. Even when there were discussions around the walkway, which is our local contentious issue, and it was clear that people had different points of view, it was a level of civil and jovial discourse that just doesn’t exist in politics any more. It was refreshing and wonderful.
A perfect way to end a day in the office.
Walkway Over the Hudson at Sunset
The Openning of the Walkway Over the Hudson
The Walkway Over The Hudson is an amazing thing. A 1.3 mile bridge that spans the Hudson River here in Poughkeepsie, which just opened this past weekend after decades of effort. We were lucky enough to participate in the lighting ceremony on Friday night, which involved sending up these Sky Lanterns. Yes, they are powered by fire, which makes them even more awesome.
If you live anywhere near Poughkeepsie, you really owe it to yourself to come check the walkway out. The scale of the thing is so different than anything you’ve been on before that it doesn’t really feel like a bridge (at least not to me), but more of a mythical sky way.
I’ve got a bunch of other photos up at my smugmug site, take a look if you are interested in the walkway.
It's always more complicated 
