Clayton – The City of Hospitality

This past weekend was a wonderful and exciting time in Clayton. The Saint Louis Art Fair was spectacular, and celebrating its 20th anniversary made it even more special. We hope you were able to attend the event and see the vast array of works in a variety of media by the 181 artists from 13 states plus Canada and Mexico. Our hotels and restaurants were filled with visitors from around the country – truly a wonderful and exciting time for our city.

On Sunday morning, I had the pleasure of attending the Artists’ Breakfast event at the Sheraton Plaza Hotel, and spoke with many of the artists both at the breakfast and later at their booths. During our conversations, one theme stood out – the gratitude from all of the artists for the professionalism of the Art Fair staff, and the hospitality of the people throughout the City of Clayton. To my surprise, hospitality is not part of the experience at some of the art venues around the country. However, to a person, the sentiment of the artists participating in the Saint Louis Art Fair was what a great show and what a great city we have. This is apparently why year after year, we have ten times more artist apply than there are available spaces. Kudos to Cindy Lerick, Laura Miller and the Cultural Festivals staff for producing an award winning show year after year; to our police and fire personnel for making it safe; to our Public Works staff for setting up and breaking down in an amazingly efficient manner; to our sponsors for being such great corporate citizens; and to the many volunteers without whom the Art Fair could not exist.

On Sunday, another special event took place in Clayton.  For the second year in a row, our Clayton Fire Department hosted a stair climb event honoring the 343 firefighters who died in the line of duty on 9/11. Many of the 280 participating firefighters and civilians from 22 departments in our region and a total of 36 departments from the five state area were dressed in full firefighting gear (weighing 25 to 80  lbs) while they climbed 110 flights of stairs in the Pierre Laclede Center. Each participant carried the name and photo of a member of the New York Fire Department who was lost during the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Over $30,000 was raised to benefit the survivor programs of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation.  Representatives from New York Fire Departments were on hand and again, one theme stood out – what a terrific experience coming to Clayton is, and what great hospitality they received from everyone they met here.  Of the 20 such events around the country, I heard again and again how ours was the most well organized and best run, and that the experience in Clayton was among the best in the nation. 

What a special place this is to live, work, play and be educated. The Board of Aldermen and I are sincerely grateful to the employees and volunteers who work so hard every day to make our city great.