Good afternoon/evening. On behalf of the Park Tower Condominium Social Commission, Welcome to a celebration of Park Tower’s 50th anniversary. The idea for this celebration grew out of an inquiry from our neighbor, Chris Muscia, of our General Manager, Tim Patricio. From there sparks flew and this is the result.

At our first event, on September 8th, to celebrate Park Tower’s anniversary we presented Michael Parrie, the President of our Board of Directors, a Lobby Exhibit, unveiled a commemorative plaque, provided an introduction to our videoed interviews of long-time residents and announced the availability online of our Tower Talk Archive, including the first issues from 1979.

Today we will present Tim Patricio, our General Manager, a repetition of our Lobby Exhibit (point to the back), the introduction to our videoed interviews (point to the laptop in the back), links to all of our online materials, a splendid buffet and bar, and a special cake and a few surprises.  We were pleased with the responses to today’s party and have opened up a second seating so more people could attend in a room that by City law has a limit of 75.

After Tim’s speech and  helping yourselves to the buffet and bar, I hope you will take the time, if you haven’t already, to look at the historical materials in this room as well as to ask your neighbors here, in the elevators and in the hallways how long they lived here, what inspired them to do so in the first place and what are their hopes for the future of Park Tower.

We want to thank Tim Patricio and Patrik Janic for their tremendously successful fundraising efforts to procure support from a very  impressive list of corporate sponsors for our anniversary events and we want to recognize and deeply thank those corporate sponsors  –

Chicago Flooring ($$)
Green Tech Decorating ($$)
SK Construction ($$)
WJO Chicago ($$)
Kroeschel Engineering ($$)
Admiral Security ($$)
Astound Broadband ($$)
Anna Held Floral Studio for our floral display (arrangements)
Habitat Management LLC for its design work, especially our 50th anniversary logo (design work)
Lettuce Entertain You and especially Jay Stieber (for the sumptuous mini  wraps and sandwiches on our buffet).

I am also thankful to my colleagues on the Social Commission and our neighbors volunteering without being on the commission for the many hours they have dedicated to making our anniversary celebrations so fantastic. Thank you also to Alicia Gellineau and her colleagues and to Richard Hendrix for the use of this beautiful music stand.

Special thanks, then, to Bob Shamo, Monique Fouant and Steve Weiss for the outstanding videoed interviews with long-time residents, to Bob Shamo for curating our exhibition of memorabilia, to Shalise Ayromloo and Erik Butka and the Home Improvement Commission for their work on the commemorative plaque to be found in the Lobby and to Bob Shamo once again for creating the Tower Talk Archive. Special thanks also to Tim Patricio and his dedicated Office Team, Kirsty, Danny and Scott, to Patrik Janic, Bill Rini and Louie Mezzano and the always smiling, polite and tremendously helpful Maintenance Team and to our Front Desk, Security and Garage Staffs.

And finally thanks to today’s volunteers without whom we could not succeed – Bob Shamo, Sheri Hodges, John Yardley, Monique Fouant, Steve Weiss, Joe Guzzardo, Richard Rouse, Shalise Ayromloo, Jean Shamo, Sharon Walker, and Patrice Wooldridge.

We live in a unique modernistic, triangular building in an exceptional setting with the park and the lake and with the most outstanding neighbors living and working here. And in the end it is the people that make this the great place that it is.

Our buffet table and bar will open after our speeches. At that time, I will call one table at a time to avoid long lines. You have multiple menus on your tables so you may become more familiar with the choices to eat and drink before you are called.

INTRODUCTION TO TIM PATRICIO

Tim Patricio started in Property Management in Michigan in the mid-1990s. He first worked summer jobs at his mom’s Century 21 office, designing her booklets for listings and helping with Open Houses. He got his first job in day-to-day property management at a rental firm in Lansing, Michigan. At the same time he also held down an overnight maintenance position at the apartment building in which he lived for 3 years.

Tim’s day job required at times that he travel to Chicago. And one day, just wanting something new, he opened up a Chicago Tribune. Amazingly enough, three weeks later he moved to Uptown and had a job managing condo properties. That was the Spring of 2000. A year later a Board Member at a building where he worked referred him for a job at Draper and Kramer. 22 years later, he’s celebrating his 16th year at Park Tower. And we are celebrating his outstanding leadership. Join me in welcoming Tim Patricio.