Mayor: ‘This was far greater than I expected’

“Congratulations to you. This was far greater than I expected both in choreography, the beauty, the costumes—it was fantastic,”
Mayor: ‘This was far greater than I expected’
Mary Silver
2/6/2009
Updated:
2/8/2009
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HUNTSVILLE, Ala.—Government officials from Huntsville and surrounding towns gave wholehearted support to Divine Performing Arts. Decatur Mayor Don Stanford supported the Huntsville show of Divine Performing Arts with a proclamation and a speech. Mayor of Tuscumbia Billy Shoemaker brought his wife, who serves on the board of an arts organization, and gave an official welcome letter to the company.

Mayor Stanford said, “Thank you very much. It was a pleasure for my wife and I to be here tonight. I just don’t see how they keep up with what all they’re supposed to be doing. The colors of the outfits were just beautiful. I don’t know who does the choreography for this, but they do a great job. This was a very unique group of athletes, that performed this. It looked like they never gave out of breath. I know they worked very, very hard in practicing for this. I’m glad to see the culture being handed down from one year to the next and from one family.

“Just keep up the good work, ya’ll and we look forward to seeing it next year.”

Mayor Shoemaker laid on the golden tongued charm and humor. He said, “Dr. Yang asked me if I wanted to talk and I said, talking is not my problem. It’s stopping talking that is my problem. So I promised my wife when we were coming over here that I’m not going to talk too long.” He expressed gratitude for being invited to see “this really fine, talented group of people.”

<a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/CityofDecatMayorDanStanford_photo_medium.jpg"><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/CityofDecatMayorDanStanford_photo_medium-336x450.jpg" alt="Dan Stanford, Mayor of Decatur Alabama.  " title="Dan Stanford, Mayor of Decatur Alabama.  " width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-80724"/></a>
Dan Stanford, Mayor of Decatur Alabama.
“I told one of the little ladies who escorted us down the hall [to the reception] I believe y’all expended more energy than those guys did a couple of Sundays ago in the super bowl. Football is a major passion in this part of the world, so this is very high praise.

“There’s a lot of activity out there. I was so impressed to see how very many people it takes to put this show on, and I did ask, does this band travel with you? And they said, oh yes. And the music was super. I was just carried away. Pat and I, my wife and I, were just carried away with the whole thing, the backdrop, the way you filmed the backdrop and made that a part of the story and made it come alive.

“When the rock jumped out of the wall and this guy came out of the hole I said, Wow! I felt like superman had just landed.” He was speaking of the Legend of the Brush, in which a group of scholars labor to carve records on bamboo scrolls. Just as despair seems imminent, help of a most unexpected sort visits them.

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“Thanks a lot for including us. Congratulations to you. This was far greater than I expected both in choreography, the beauty, the costumes—it was fantastic,” he said.

Mayor Shoemaker graduated from the University of Alabama, and is a civil engineer. Elected mayor in 2004, he has served on many boards, has two daughters, and owns his own business. As he was leaving the reception, he said with a big laugh, “I never prepare any remarks, I always just wing it.” He said he learned this method of oratory while serving with the Department of Transportation. People want to know what you just did and what you are about to do for them, he said.

  Please see DivinePerformingArts.org for more information.

 

 

Mary Silver writes columns, grows herbs, hikes, and admires the sky. She likes critters, and thinks the best part of being a journalist is learning new stuff all the time. She has a Masters from Emory University, serves on the board of the Georgia chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and belongs to the Association of Health Care Journalists.
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