Autograph Your Work

“Every job is a self-portrait of the person who did it. Autograph your work with excellence.”  -Jessica Guidobono-

In my final two weeks at BUFF, I am working with the maintenance division and it has been another great week. The maintenance division here at BUFF is filled with extremely hardworking individuals that truly give meaning to the phrase “do more with less.” While struggling with common agency-wide issues such as understaffing and lack of resources, the men and women of the BUFF maintenance division continually “autograph their work with excellence.”

Frank (right) and his YCC crew
after some hard work

One of the freshly painted park buildings

Frank Smith, much like Ray Benjamin, is a one-man team. He is the BUFF trail team and as such, he is charged with maintaining BUFF’s 70+ miles of trail. Luckily, this summer he was given some extra help and tasked with leading a YCC (Youth Conservation Corps) group. I was lucky enough to work with Frank and the YCC kids this week and together, in just three days, we painted two park buildings and maintained nearly five miles of the BRT (Buffalo River Trail). I was just so impressed by the work ethic and skill of the YCC group. I think I speak for the entire group when I say that we ended each workday both exhausted and filled with a sense of accomplishment.

I have truly enjoyed my time thus far with maintenance because I love being able to look back at my work each day and see a visible improvement. I also love leaving work feeling physically exhausted because I put everything into my work. That is a feeling that simply can’t be replicated. That is how I “autograph my work with excellence.”