Gelberg Signs Unveils Nationals Park Stadium Signage

Members of
the
Washington,
DC
City Council, community members and ballpark officials gathered at Gelberg
Signs in
Northwest DC to assist in unveiling
the exterior signage for Major League Baseball’s newest ballpark, which is set to
open in Spring 2008.

Gelberg
Signs, with a local history dating back to 1941, was selected by Clark Hunt
Smoot to engineer, develop, fabricate and install over 3,000 signs for the new
Washington Nationals Ballpark. The sign company’s role as a Certified Business
Enterprise (formerly the Local, Small and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise
program) played a major role in Clark Hunt Smoot’s decision to award the entire
signage package to a local family-owned business.

The event
also spotlighted a unique workforce development program that Gelberg Signs has
created with Covenant House Washington, a nonprofit organization which
addresses widespread problems of homelessness and poverty among teenagers and
young adults within the District. Youth involved in the program receive
specialized training which prepares them for a full-time job as an artisan at
the full-service sign shop.

Since
launching the partnership this fall, five Covenant House graduates have been
hired by Gelberg Signs, and each has been integral in the production of the
stadium signage.

Washington
,
DC Mayor Adrian Fenty, who was
unable to attend the unveiling, extended his congratulations through a written
statement: “This is a great day for small business in the

District of Columbia,”
noted Mayor Fenty. “The work that this public-private partnership has
produced will be seen by millions of people around the world starting next
spring. The people who produced these signs should be very proud.”

The event
was officiated by DC Council Chairman Vincent Gray and included DC
Councilmembers Kwame Brown and Muriel Bowser; Director of the DC Department of
Small and Local Business Development Erik Moses and Executive Director of
Covenant House Washington, Judith Dobbins. The ceremony was followed by lunch
and facility tour.

In
December 2004,

Washington,
DC and Major League Baseball agreed to a public
financing package to build a 41,000-seat baseball stadium, allowing the former
Expos to move to DC. In February 2006 the DC City Council passed the required
stadium lease agreement, capping the city’s expenditures on the project at $611
million. The stadium, located in Southeast Washington and dubbed Nationals Park
until naming rights have been awarded, is set to open in Spring 2008.