Client: Warrensburg, Missouri

Warrensburg, Missouri: Made Fresh Daily

By: Ben Pierce
Feb 2, 2006

Sesquicentennial Co-chairs Jackie Harmon and Duane Sterling

Warrensburg, Mo. - The City of Warrensburg unveiled its new brand at the Look to the Future Sesquicentennial Banquet Thursday in the Sandra Temple Elliott Ballroom at Central Missouri State University.

Warrensburg, Missouri: made fresh daily symbolizes the regeneration constantly taking place in our town, along with the wholesome goodness of life in a smaller community.

The sesquicentennial celebration recognizes 150 years of Warrensburg history.

The entire week has been an opportunity for Warrensburg to examine the opportunities and challenges that face it going into the next 150 years. The celebration tonight coincided with Sprint's brand reveal for the local telephone service company, which will be called Embarq (stock symbol EQ).

The CMSU Student Jazz Band performed classic jazz selections leading into the buffet dinner of chicken Cordon Bleu, roast pork and garlic smashed potatoes.

CMSU Board of Directors President Palmer Nichols II described his experiences as a 45-year resident of Warrensburg, recalling specifics such as the 9 p.m. curfew in the women's dormitories. He explained that the celebration was held at CMSU in part to symbolize the unique partnership the University shares with the community. "There's no evidence of a town & gown division in Warrensburg," he said.

State Representative David Pearce (R- Dist. 121) introduced a table of Central Missouri State University student leaders on campus and then turned the microphone over to Dr. Duane Sterling, co-chair with Jackie Harmon of the year-long Warrensburg sesquicentennial celebration. In addition to the 93 community volunteers, Sterling recognized Dr. and Trudy Quibell for showing the way with the Centennial event 50 years ago.

Sterling also mentioned that sesquicentennial cookbooks are still available for purchase.

Co-chair Jackie Harmon then thanked the volunteers, many by name, and provided her memories of the past year while preparing for the final event.

David Pearce once again took the podium. Among his other recollections of the event he cautioned, "Don't ever serve on the pooper scooper committee with Jeff Hancock. Scott Crist and I did all the work and Jeff was just waving around at everyone."

Duane Sterling (left) chats with Embarq CEO Tom McEvoy

Embarq president Tom McEvoy told the story of how the first transatlantic cable had been laid about 150 years ago. Three days later, some French fishermen snagged the cable and the first cable cut hit the record books.

McEvoy described how Embarq, a $16.5 billion company and number 340 on the the Fortune 500, would integrate the third largest wireless Sprint & Nextel combination to 7 million local customers in 18 states. "Doing away with local telephone service is like cutting a safety net," McEvoy said. "A lot of wireless customers come back to us to put in a landline phone."

He said that Embarq would recapture its identity as a local company by customizing Sprint/Nextel wireless services to the way the customer wants to work. He provided a combo-phone demonstration, in which you connect your cell phone to the local network until your are too far away from the base, then the cellular network takes over.

McEvoy further noted that the local company would keep its Sprint logo until June, at which time it would convert to the Embarq logo.

Right before Mayor Charlie Rutt played a video about Warrensburg, he again praised the volunteers noting, "You, our volunteers, have been able to show that we're not just a sleepy little spot in the road."

Rutt described his one request to North Star, developers of the new brand, to "please deliver more than the dog" when they were finished.