http://www.thebattlecreekshopper.com BATTLE CREEK SHOPPER NEWS Thursday, August 15, 2024 15
BABY
Continued from Page 11Also supporting the event are
Meijer, Family Fare, Southside
Grubz and Sam’s Club.
Milk Like Mine will operate a
“Baby Café” for nursing mothers to
use during the event and there will
be games for the children at an out-
door tent behind the church.
Community resources plan-
ning to attend to interact with the
families including the Battle Creek
Diaper Initiative, the Calhoun
County Pubic Health Department,
Summit Pointe, Community Action,
Community Fatherhood, the Calhoun
Intermediate School District and oth-
ers.Post Consumer Brands has donated
14 cases of cereal to the effort.
It takes about 40 volunteers to
make the massive baby shower hap-
pen.
“I think it’s awesome,” said
Barnes. “I love it, I do. You get
to meet so many people from the
community. You don’t know what
somebody’s going through. Maybe
they want to see that smile when
they walk through the door. Maybe
they didn’t know where their next
set of diapers was coming from for
their baby. Maybe they didn’t know
if their baby was going to get any
clothes. We got it. We’ve got it right
here and we want to share that with
the community. We want to reach
somebody and help somebody.”After a decade at the city’s
helm, Battle Creek City Manager
Rebecca Fleury said she is retiring
by the end of the
year.
Fleury formal-
ly notified City
of Battle Creek
Mayor Mark
Behnke and
the city com-
mission of her
resignation Aug.
7, said spokes-
person Breanne
Humphreys/
While her contract requires only
30 days’ notice, Fleury gave the
commission a departure window
of Nov. 30-Dec. 31 to allow time
to plan and implement a search
process.
“I look around and see a different
Battle Creek than when I started —
something I’m proud to have been
part of,” Fleury said. “It has been
my honor and privilege to serve
with our current city commission,as well as previous commissions,
in Battle Creek for the past 10
years. Reaching my goals would
not have been possible without
supportive city commissions and
an amazing city staff. There is
much value in longevity and con-
sistency in the city manager’s role,
and I hope that the next city man-
ager serves longer than me.”
Fleury, who became Battle
Creek’s first female city manager
in October 2014, is the city’s lon-
gest serving city manager to date.
“I appreciate the work of the
city manager over the past decade.
Her efforts have placed our com-
munity in a position to continue to
improve and grow,” Behnke said.
“We thank her and her family for
their hard work and dedication,
and we wish her the best as she
embarks on the next phase in her
life.”
Over the coming weeks, the
city commission will discuss the
search process to recruit a new city
manager.City Manager Rebecca Fleury to retire
City Manager
Rebecca Fleury