John and Lory Kirk shared a special moment with friends, employees, partners and customers on Friday, June 7th. Although schedules had forced ground to have been officially “broken” a few weeks earlier, John and Lory hosted their official Ground Breaking ceremony to celebrate the construction of their new swim school with 35-40 family and friends.
See more pictures from the June 7th celebration.
Location: The corner of Reece Boulevard and Rosewood Meadow Lane off Exit 23 in Huntersville
First Class Registrations: January 2014
John and Lory are excited about the new facility because of the freedom they have had to design and develop this school to include everything they have always wanted to have in a swim school facility and many features that they’ve seen in innovative and creative facilities around the country – and the world.
The Kirk’s were honored to share a few words, lunch and a slice of a special Little Otter cake with their guests who included the town planners, attorneys, bankers, contractors and builders working on the project as well as many employees from Little Otter’s Matthews facility and team members from Little Otter’s business management system provider, Jackrabbit Technologies.
John and Lory were excited to don hard hats and take official gold shovels and pose for official photos with several groups of those key to the project. It was an exciting day as the neighborhood can watch as a very valuable facility develops before their eyes and they await the first season of swim classes that the Kirks will offer from the “north” facility.
Those who were listening learned a little bit about the ground breaking ceremony itself. The exact origins are lost to the mists of time but we do know that its tradition is observed on all 6 inhabited continents (Antarctica is the only one that does not have this tradition.)
The ceremony details date back to our ancestors and include drawing on cave walls to communicate to others that a particular place is sacred. Ceremonies continued into recorded history, consecrating the building of temples, churches and cathedrals into their communities.
The ground breaking ceremony survives today, marking the construction of almost any type of building that its owners wish to celebrate. The ceremonies themselves range from incredibly brief and simple to very elaborate and costly.
The celebration is also known as a cutting, sod-cutting, turning the first sod or a sod-turning ceremony. A wide variety of people from clergy to politicians participate in ground breakings providing blessings and congratulations.
Little Otter North’s celebration marked a very special milestone for John and Lory as they gathered with friends and families to share in a new beginning.
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