|
HOW TO CELEBRATE A CENTENNIAL
OR OTHER COMMUNITY MILESTONES
Recently, APHNYS members were asked to share their ideas and suggestion on how a community can commemorate a milestone event--such as a centennial. Below you will find many creative and useful suggestions. We thank all our members for sharing.
I believe the most lasting project that was done by our 350th Anniversary Committee in 2005 was to produce a 200+ page book. It told the history of the Town, but also included personal stories, i.e. a farm family during the depression, a family who came out to Brookhaven in the 1950's to start a chicken farm, urban sprawl after WWII. It is the personal stories interspersed with the historical facts and photos that make it special. We also had an underwriter for the cost of printing and were able to provide every school library in the Town with a complimentary copy. I would suggest a book that retails for no more than $25.00. Our initial selling price was $35 and it was too high.
Hi,
My synagogue in Brooklyn will be celebrating its centennial in May, 2011. We are planning a fund raising cantorial concert, an auction with goods and services donated by members and local merchants among other things as well. I just found out a few nights ago that when the cornerstone of the Temple was laid in 1913, certain items were placed in a copper box inside the cornerstone.. We now are going to look into the cost of opening up the stone (carefully) and invite the media. I found out this information from the archives of the Brooklyn Eagle newspaper. It published from 1841-1955.
We will be having a centennial gala to which we are putting out feelers to those that have moved away many years ago and might want to come back for the celebration. Place ads in local Nassau and Suffolk papers a well as over the internet. You might wish to have a parade with vintage automoblies. Here in Brooklyn, we have the Brooklyn Antique Automobile Association (BAAA). The president has over 40 antique cars and trucks in his personal collection. Check to see if Nassau or Suffolk has a similar group. If not, get in touch with me and I will give you the contact information for the BAAA. How about a parade with the cars and the people of the town in period dress like in 1910.
Check to see if there are any vintage newspapers that are still publishing in Nassau. Perhaps they have files about Sands Point.
Good luck!
Ron Schweiger
Brooklyn Borough Historian
Hello, just rec'd the email regarding the Centennial at Sands Point. I'm not overly familiar with this township but here are a few suggestions:
Have a parade where the Grand Martial portrays a historic person from the community (and others in character if enough interest)
Have a historic homes tour or a walking tour of the business district and share some of the history as you walk thru.
Work with the school to see if they can incorporate an essay contest on local history and feature the best articles in the local paper or school newsletter.
If you have enough artififacts, hold an open house at the oldest church or building and have a "meet and greet" so people can browse your display, enjoy refreshments and visit.
Have a trivia contest of local history.
Re-dedicate a park in town/village, plant a new tree and dedicate it as the "centennial tree", have the school band perform etc., really get the community involved in the ceremony by asking town officials to speak, ask a local Senator to come speak, if the part has a flag pole, ask the Senator to supply a flag that has flown over the Capital. Most Senators can do that with a little advance notice.
Just a few ideas that I can think of that may work.
Thanks
Dawn Roe
Port Byron Historian
Advice: you must set up a website for your community centennial celebration!
Martin Sweeney
Town of Homer Historian
Our town had its sesquicentennial in 2002 and found that an all-years high school reunion at the school was heavily attended. The celebration has to be fun as well as historical.
We also had a tent set up at the park and held an interfaith service in which each church had a part--reading of the town history, choir and music selections, appropriate readings, prayer for the future, etc.
We also had a family histories book with pictures--stories and photos contributed by the families. You will need to keep reminding people there's a deadline.
If the historian/historical society have enough pictures, a book by Arcadia Publishing sold so fast we could hardly believe it.
In looking for ideas for our village centennial in 2011, I went back through the centennial of the town clippings a few months ago. They had a Women's Day when the women took over the government and had a mock town meeting, police and firemen (in name and costume only); Families Day with settler families (perhaps 1st person actors); time capsule; heritage and ethnic cookbook with grandma's recipes; etc.
Georgianne Bowman, Historian
Town and Village of North Collins
In 1994-95 the Town of Caroline held a number of "celebrations" to mark our Bi-Centennial of the settling of the Town. We published calendars with historic photos, a Town History, a cookbook, a family history book of the first settlers, and printed tee-shirts as a way to raise funds. We held a beginning parade (early summer 1994) and an ending parade (late summer 1995). We held "pot-luck" suppers in each hamlet and presented a slide-show concerning that area. Nearly everything was done by donation and the money-raising activities (the Town contributed the initial $1000 to start the calendars). The local crafts people were invited to set up their wares at the 2 parade sites, the fire departments held chicken bar-b-q's, lagsana dinners, and pancake breakfast's. The committee had enough funds left over at the end of the celebrations to fund 6 historical markers. The committee was organized and started work in 1989 -- 5 years in advance of the celebration.
Barbara Kone, Historian
Town of Caroline, Tompkins Co., NY
I wasn't involved in the festivities, but the Village of Rouses Point staged a reenactment of its first meetings as part of its centennial during the 1970s. According to the photographic records and the memories of those involved, it was quite successful. In fact, it led to a pretty vibrant historical community in Rouses Point.
Best,
Anastasia
Anastasia L. Pratt, Ph.D.
SUNY Empire State College
Plattsburgh Unit
Room 316, Sibley Hall
State University of New York
101 Broad Street
Plattsburgh, NY 12901
(518) 564-2837
As part of our Quadricentennial commemorations this year, we had Snapshot Day. Town residents were asked to take pictures of everyday life in Bethlehem on September 16, 2009. The photos were then gathered and placed in our town's photo archive. The intention was to create a legacy for the future. People love to look at old photographs. 100 years from now people can look back and see what our town was like in 2009. It is kind of like a time capsule, but more accessible. I am sure in 50 years people will look back and marvel how things have changed since 2009, as well as in 2093 when we celebrate our tricentennial. The project was well received in town and we ended up with about 100 photographs.
Susan E. Leath
Town of Bethlehem Historian
445 Delaware Avenue
Delmar, NY 12054
518-439-4955 ext 1160 (voice mail)
518-439-7470 (home)
sleath@townofbethlehem.org
The possibilities are almost endless…as I recall, Sands Point is a maritime waterfront community…so:
1) Antique Boat Show focusing on boats and watercraft of the 1910 era.
2) If there are other annual events and festivals during the year…they can all select the Centennial Theme
3) Street Dances or fashion parades in period dress
4) High School and community bands can feature music from the era
5) Obviously, talks, exhibits and presentations in the schools, libraries and business store front windows
6) Re – enact first Village Board Meeting or however else the municipality was set off.
7) Big shindig in the local park with speeches by all manner of local, county and state level dignitaries with music and fireworks
8) A whole series of articles (over many weeks) in the local newspapers telling the story of the founding and history of the village
9) Prepare and publish a book on the history of the village (use Arcadia Publishing)
10) #5, #8 and #9 can all be one coordinated affair…each just has a slightly different venue (do the research work once)
11) Focus on the stories and milestones of the past 100 years. Little known stories can be told.
12) Publish oral history accounts of people who were around during different periods.
13) Publish and recognize all the present and past Mayors…have a reunion party or ceremony
14) Have all the service clubs do something on theme (Masons, Lions, Rotary, Scouts, PTA, and all the churches)
15) Publish the 1910 census of the Village…recognize all the descendents of those original families at the other events planned…see above ideas for events throughout the year.
16) It is a year long event…plan some major “do” or piece of the celebration every month through the year
17) Certainly arrange for a proclamation by the local County Legislature
18) Of course, involve all the local historical societies, museums and other history related organizations
19) Involve everyone…leave no one or group out…have a food festival with ethnic groups doing a weekend
20) Have sea food dish, chicken wing, chili, cake or pie or whatever cooking – bake off contests to identify the “best” of whatever…better yet focus on a food or dish per month throughout the year…everyone can enter individuals, businesses, churches, clubs….etc.
21) Speaking of businesses…always involve all local businesses….not just asking them for handout and money
I could go on and on….but I think you get the idea….take any idea and add the Centennial Theme to it. Pet Shows, Horse Shows, Craft Shows, Antique Shows, Bathing Beauties, Talent Shows…Races and Sporting Tournaments of every sort….just add the Centennial Theme.
The idea is for the community to have a fun time together while celebrating 100 years.
The 100 years is just an excuse for a year long festival and party…it will really bring the community together and I assume that this is the larger purpose.
Take it and run…all the best,
Peter Evans
Wayne County Historian
Floral Park just had a whole year of centennial celebrations, it was awesome. They had tee shirts, plates, magnets, car stickers. They had a festival and a parade. They held a black tie dinner at their historical society. Maybe Irmgard should try to contact Walter Gosden. I know he has not been too active in APHNYS, but he is very animated about his service to his community. He is a teacher at the Floral Park - Bellerose elementary school.
Alan Woodruff
Historian
Bellerose Village
Folks: Just one of the many things we did at our recent Bicentennial Celebration (2009 - Town of Riga, New York) was to host an opening ceremony (In January). It was at this function that we handed out to the local organizations(Fire Dept, Town hall, Library, etc.) a large (4 X 6 ft) "Star Spangle American Flag." This flag was the standard for our country from 1795 to 1818 and has a very interesting history. It was the only U.S. flag to have 15 stars and 15 stripes. Each organization was asked to fly it for the year. You would be surprised how many people generated an interest in it. It was also great to take it to the schools, and the public and explain its history. We are now (December 11) going to host a closing ceremony and bring down the flag. We also ordered small hand held "Star Spangled" American flags to give out at our Memorial day service. Any other ideas, feel free to contact me: Ron Belczak, Town of Riga, New York, ronbells@aol.com.
Hi Irmgard,
Congratulations on your upcoming Centennial!
The Town of Kirkwood,NY celebrated our 150th this summer. Two of the activities we had were displays of a large birthday cake (photo attached) and photographs of 19th century Kirkwood.
The displays were incorporated as part of the Town's annual parade and Fair.
The cake was made in 4 layers; each consisting of plywood discs surrounded with sheet metal, the largest layer being 4 feet in diameter. We placed it on a float along with a Doctor's buggy
manufactured in Kirkwood in the 1860's.
The photographs were of Kirkwood scenes; many were borrowed from residents, professionally copied, and returned. Each photo was enlarged to 8x10 inches and placed on backer boards and
displayed as close to eye level as possible. We had approximately 100 photos (they were a big hit).
If you have any questions please write or call.
Good luck.
Sam Borruso
Town of Kirkwood Historian
1762 Rt 11 Kirkwood,NY 13795
607 775-1130
Having someone construct a period flag is always a good idea for a centennial celebration Having the town officials and office workers dress in period costume on the special day Having a birthday cake is another idea. (We of Skaneateles have 3 hamlet meetings throughout the town. On our 175th, each time we had a hamlet meeting, we had a smaller, special birthday cake, so these all the people of the town would feeel that they were taking part in the celebration too.). Having a special corner in the local newspaper for a short historical article helped keep people up on our history, was helpful and looked forward to by the readers.
Hope this helps.
Beth Batlle
Town of Skaneateles Historian
In 1995 I was chairman of the Village of Mamaroneck Centennial. I did have a large committee that offered a number of suggestions and so we ended up with a celebration of some kind every month for a year. A chair was made for each monthly celebration who had a small committee who would report to the main committee and ideas and plans. A local man created a beautiful logo for the Centennial and small street light flags flew all year in the business are. I also asked a local woman who was always so interested in local history to bethe editor of a Centennial Celebration Book. She and her committee did a beautiful job with covering so many angles of what our community is with many pictures. The year-long celebration was a tremendous undertaking but was fabulous. The celebrations included: a kick-off cocktail party held at the Jewish temple; a December holiday sing-a-long in a local park (included vocal groups from the schools, girl scouts, senior center;, an evening at the local live theatre where we showed an old film made in Mamaroneck by the D. W.Griffith Studio and teen dancers from the dance studio, and some other local acts; a tour of local businesses including Archie Comics and a ship-building company; a cherry blossom festival day at the harbor park that included history murals by the five local elementary schools and a free boat ride around the harbor that included the history of the harbor and Long Island Sound (this was a special treat for those residents who loved the harbor park but had never had the opportunity to see their home town from the water; free historical bus tour of different areas in the community; a photographic essay of "A Day in the Life of the Village" in which I picked a day in which all could take a photo of various normal scenes in the Village (of course, I chose a day in early June when the weather was warm and beautiful) and the photos were submitted to the committee that made a picture essay telling the time of day the photo was taken and where and who are in the photo; a dinner/dance at a local club celebrating the centennial - this was held towards the actual centennial day; and for the actual day, a local artist made a small sketch that was given to the local post office so that letters mailed that day could receive the centennial cancellation stamp. I also was able to arrange a local woman who was connected with out local cable channel to video tape all of the events so that we do have a lasting record of the year. The video tape has been copied to a DVD.
These celebrations were such that so many local people were involved and I ended up meeting so many of them that I did not know before that year. It was a year and a half that I was so very busy insuring that all committees were doing well and it was well worth everyone's efforts, including mine.
If there are any questions, do not hesitate to contact me.
Enjoy.
Gloria Poccia Pritts, Historian
Village of Mamaroneck
Re the Sands Point Centennial: if the town does not have its own flag, they might want to consider a competition to design one. The winning design could be unfurled at the opening of their celebration. We did this in North Salem for our Bicentennial, and it turned out to be a very successful project. I believe we had 75 entries, judged by a committee who did not know who the designers were. Residents Involved in this project ranged from school children to senior citizens. It was fun!
Susie
Susan J. Thompson
Town of North Salem Historian
SThompson@northsalemny.org
914-669-8459
I would like to send Irmgard a copy of the local newspaper special edition of Clay's 175th Anniversary. Although at the time I was not officially the Town Historian, I did organize the committee and appoint its members. The members represented the town board, historical association, homeowners groups, historian, Eagle Newspaper, schools, business and anyone else interested.
Dorothy Heller, Historian
Town of Clay
|
