Kissimmee honors employees, retirees at annual Memorial Service

  • Co-workers, family members and Kissimmee’s responder honor guard members placed roses in the memory of employees who have passed at the city’s annual Employee Memorial Service Friday at the City Hall rain garden. (Photos/Ken Jackson)
    Co-workers, family members and Kissimmee’s responder honor guard members placed roses in the memory of employees who have passed at the city’s annual Employee Memorial Service Friday at the City Hall rain garden. (Photos/Ken Jackson)
  • Co-workers, family members and Kissimmee’s responder honor guard members placed roses in the memory of employees who have passed at the city’s annual Employee Memorial Service Friday at the City Hall rain garden. (Photos/Ken Jackson)
    Co-workers, family members and Kissimmee’s responder honor guard members placed roses in the memory of employees who have passed at the city’s annual Employee Memorial Service Friday at the City Hall rain garden. (Photos/Ken Jackson)

    Kissimmee employees and families gathered at City Hall’s Rain Garden Friday morning for the City of Kissimmee’s annual Employee Memorial Service. The ceremony, held each March, honors employees of the City of Kissimmee, Kissimmee Utility Authority and Toho Water Authority who have passed away and those who have retired.

    While the ceremony is held in remembrance of those who have passed away, organizers emphasized that it is also meant to celebrate the lives and contributions of public servants, whose work often happens quietly behind the scenes.

    “The people we remember today chose public service,” said keynote speaker Heather Havey, Chief Stakeholder Services Officer for Toho Water Authority. “They chose careers that are not always visible but are always essential. They helped keep water flowing, power reliable, neighborhoods safe, services accessible and communities functioning day in and day out.”

    Havey reflected on the personal nature of loss and the importance of remembering the people behind public service roles. “Behind every badge, every uniform, and every title, there’s a life full of relationships, stories, struggles, and joy,” she said. “Moments like this call us back to what truly matters. They remind us that how we work matters just as much as the work itself, and that how we treat one another matters. One of the most meaningful things we honor as we honor those we’ve lost is not only by remembering them today, but by carrying forward the best of what they gave us.”

    Master of ceremonies Justin Hetu read the dozens of names of those being honored, as coworkers and family members poignantly placed roses in their memory.

    “The names that I’ll read today, both the retirees and the passed away, spent their lives working for the people and improving their community around them,” Hetu said. “So I like to think of this not only as a memorial, but as a celebration. Because what is worth celebrating more than those that spent their working days making sure the community around them is a better place?”

    Next year’s memorial service will be held in the gazebo area behind City Hall, where a newly constructed memorial structure, replacing a black marble pyramid that sat outside of the Church Street side of City Hall for many years, will be in place.