I want the people in Deer Park to realise how important Shell has been to us
as a city from the very beginning.
I think a lot of people don't realise that
and without Shell we wouldn't be here.
It's a partnership with Shell, Deer Park ISD, the city of Deer Park.
It's probably the best we've ever done.
Shell coming in with the experience and DP ISD hosting,
and then Raylynn coming in from Baytown
and the Chamber of Commerce putting everything together, it's been incredible.
What we're trying to do today is actually spend more time helping the community
understand what happens inside our fence.
A lot of times there's a mystique about it
and we just opened up today and said,
"How about we show them what goes on inside our site?"
From virtual-reality tours of the site,
where people can drive through and see what happens,
to understanding what our products do, to understanding how we operate the site.
We've tried to showcase that today.
We really hope that this community takes pride,
in that their support of us, powers progress in this world, as well,
and so that's what's here.
Deer Park was founded in 1892
by the name of Simeon H West.
He named it Deer Park for the large number of deer
that roamed the coastal prairies.
But, unfortunately, a lot of cold weather
and a hurricane in 1900
pretty much ended that.
So, Deer Park became a bit of a ghost town.
But in 1928, Shell bought some land from Deer Park
and they started to build their refinery.
And that is what brought Deer Park back.
And that's really what started the partnership between Deer Park and Shell.
This community is quite passionate about their history
because they have the distinction of the birthplace of Texas.
They have a historical committee that has honed in on the history of this city.
And we had the Historical Society at our site that used to host a museum,
so we could bring out those assets that were in the museum
and tell the story of really how the site and the city grew up together.
It also begs the question, of where are you going,
which is quite handy, because Shell is all about making the future.
And so we thought maybe we would have this idea
of going past, present and future.
So that's kind of what is here today
for all the citizens of Deer Park to go through.
Also, what our business is at Shell, so that we kind of take away the mystique,
and then where we are headed as a global company
and how Deer Park plays a role in that.
What we're trying to do today
is take down the big, high-level purpose
that you get from Royal Dutch
about more and cleaner energy and being a force for good
and operationalising that at the local level.
That's what we're trying to do. Our message has been consistent.
We want to be a welcome neighbour, we want to be here for a long time,
we want to be a force for good
and we know we power progress to a better world.
The folks on our site do amazing work.
It's noble jobs that power our industry, but it also powers progress in the world.
An example is when you go to a tent and you do the virtual-reality tour
and you find all the products in your house
that come from our industry and that we produce.
We feel proud about that. Our community feels proud about that.
We want to celebrate that together.
Shell has been our partner for years.
I don't know if many people know,
but the very first board meetings
were held at the Shell Administration Building.
They're constantly doing things for us, our outdoor learning centre,
working with the Education Foundation, with the STIM programme,
the science programme.
Incredible partnership. We've been working on this for over a year.
Totally natural. One of the best things we've ever done and very exciting.
Shell has been the single most important factor in Deer Park
since its existence.
Today's been a wonderful event.
Every stage of this planning, and all the effort,
Shell's been involved and participatory,
contributing both the man hours and also financially toward this.
But more than that, they wanted it to be a special event for the whole community.
We would not have been able to have a headlining act, such as Raylynn,
without Shell.
The opening band were Shell's 7 Mile Perimeter,
which was very special.
If you look at the activities, the events, it wouldn't have happened without Shell.
We walked through the little museum area and it was real cool.
Just to learn about the history of Shell and everything
and it's stuff that normal people wouldn't know,
unless you get to read about it.
It's the way that it should be in the community.
We should be helping our community, we should be participating
and this is a very good partnership between Shell and Deer Park.
It's good to know what Shell's doing in our community
and learned a little bit about the safety controls
and how that is in touch with the community.
It's good to know all of that stuff.
It takes the big corporation
into the small community.
The site and the community go hand in hand.
The community is the people that work on our site.
When we talk about the community, we are talking about our employees.
You want other people to tell their story, as well,
and so we asked our community partners
that we do social investment grants with
if they would come out and showcase what they're all about
and our grants that have helped them in their journey.
So today we have a number of folks from local Emergency Planning Committee,
the Deer Park Chamber with their app,
the Deer Park Education Foundation talking about the fun run,
Armand Bayou Nature Centre, the Deer Park Prairie,
and PetrochemWorks, which is about our workforce development in the area.
So it's neat for them to share their story
and engage the community in a way that really does show
how we are making the future together as industry and community
in the municipality.
We hope folks walk away with the sense that Shell really does care.
They care about being a good neighbour.
We do believe that we can be a force for good.
We want to make sure we're working with the community to be that.