By John Riedel
The sounds and sights of a state fair came to the back lawn of the Vermont campus this week during the annual company picnic.
Employees were greeted with the sound of carnival music and the fresh cooked barbecue prepared by our very own New England Culinary Institute. There was even a high-striker where employees could step up to try to ring the bell.
Chef Emma Cutler crafted the menu to bring an authentic Blue-ribbon taste right to our doorstep. The menu included a wide variety of classic foods you’d find at the fair. There were snacks such as cotton candy and popcorn. The main meal had a spread of delicious options including potato salad, grilled chicken, beef chili hot dogs, smoked brisket with a house-made BBQ sauce.
NECI employees worked hard alongside guest chef Mehran Assadi. Mehran spent the start of the picnic by the heat of the grill, tending to the food for all employees.
After which he, alongside Chris Graff, officially kicked off the picnic and even took a moment to thank Sean Woodroffe for his time with the company as he will be starting a new job in New Jersey. Mehran also thanked the entire staff of NECI and National Life Group for all the hard work done this year.
At the bottom of the hill had even more fun. Teams played classic fair games for tickets. Teams of three were given tokens to play for raffle tickets at each game that would be drawn by random at the end of the picnic.
Teams bounced and tumbled in the potato sack race while darts were flying at the balloon pop station. Players also tried their hands at cornhole, ring toss, duck fishing, and throwing ping pong balls into fish bowls. Employees continued to enjoy the games, even when they ran out of tokens for tickets.
The games ended in a series of raffles for a range of prizes. Players ran down the hill and gathered around the ticket tent as the winning ticket numbers were called.
The first drawing was for meal tickets to our NECI cafeteria. The second drawing was for $25 Amazon gifts cards, followed by two more drawings for cards worth $50 and $100 respectively.
