{"id":63981,"date":"2021-10-01T10:11:18","date_gmt":"2021-10-01T17:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=63981"},"modified":"2021-10-01T10:11:18","modified_gmt":"2021-10-01T17:11:18","slug":"homecoming-dedicatee-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/homecoming-dedicatee-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Homecoming heritage: Groundskeeping manager named 2021 dedicatee"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was just a normal all-hands meeting at Facilities Services on Thursday\u00a0until\u00a0the cheering started.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking for\u00a0<\/span>Ralph Padilla<\/span><\/b>,\u201d\u00a0<\/span>Michelle Gardner<\/span><\/b>, assistant director of Student Life, told the group of facilities managers, who were all watching the group of students waving blue and gold pom-poms and surreptitiously carrying balloons\u2014at least,\u00a0as surreptitiously as one can carry balloons.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The groundskeeping manager, his hands in the pockets of his NAU jacket, stood up.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m Ralph.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ralph<\/a>Padilla was announced as this year\u2019s Homecoming dedicatee, an honor bestowed on one member of NAU\u2019s faculty or staff each year to recognize their contributions to the university. Student organizations nominate people and then vote. It\u2019s a decades-long NAU tradition\u2014one Padilla, who spends a lot of time every fall preparing campus for Homecoming, is familiar with, but not one he anticipated being on the receiving end of.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was surprised, man,\u201d he announced with a laugh when he emerged from his office to cheers from his coworkers, all of whom were sporting pins with his face on them\u2014another Homecoming tradition.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Padilla has been on the grounds crew for 33 years. He\u2019s planted flowers, mowed grass, kept the forested areas in good condition and done other duties as needed to keep the grounds looking nice. And, of course, he\u2019s shoveled tons of snow in the last three decades, often in the early morning hours so campus would be accessible by the time classes started.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He\u2019s also worked with hundreds of students in that time. The grounds crew relies on student\u00a0employees\u00a0to make sure all of campus is tended.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe couldn\u2019t do it without them,\u201d Padilla said. \u201cThey\u2019re part of our team\u2014we couldn\u2019t make campus look this good without our student\u00a0employees.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The same goes for his full-time crew; reflecting on his 33 years, Padilla said the best moments were when his team was recognized for their hard work or the university was noted for its beautiful campus.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGrounds does a lot for this campus,\u201d said\u00a0<\/span>Stephanie Bauer<\/span><\/b>, director of facilities and maintenance, who called the meeting\"Ralph<\/a> that was really just a chance to recognize Padilla. \u201cRalph is always willing to do what needs to be done.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Padilla will participate in several Homecoming events, including judging the chili cook-off and attending a banquet in his honor on Oct. 13.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s extra special for Padilla\u2014he got married two weeks ago, so it\u2019s a big month. Plus, he\u2019s played a big role in Homecoming every year, one that affects every visitor to campus. The grounds crews plant flowers, set up bleachers and do other preparation for the parade, get the carnival and bonfire ready for visitors and more. He used to pull the wagon wheel in the parade every year, but lately he\u2019s let his crew do it.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Of course, this year, as Homecoming dedicatee, he gets his own ride.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Find out about the all the events at the Homecoming website.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Heidi Toth | NAU Communications
\n(928) 523-8737 | heidi.toth@nau.edu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was just a normal all-hands meeting at Facilities Services on Thursday\u00a0until\u00a0the cheering started.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re looking for\u00a0Ralph Padilla,\u201d\u00a0Michelle Gardner, assistant director of Student Life, told the group of facilities managers, who were all watching the group of students waving blue and gold pom-poms and surreptitiously carrying balloons\u2014at least,\u00a0as surreptitiously as one can carry balloons.\u00a0 The…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":63983,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}