Gearing Up for Guilford's 375th Anniversary
It has been a long time coming, but it's fast approaching. Guilford's gearing up to mark its 375th anniversary in less than two years and a Celebration Committee formed to help kick off the year-round festivities for 2014 is hard at work-but could use some help.
Economic Development Coordinator Brian McGlone, who serves on the Celebration Committee, said the 13 members just finished up their first kick-off meeting, introducing themselves and brainstorming fundraising activities.
"We wanted to have an introduction of the various committee members that had volunteered and were asked to get on board," he said. "We started revealing things that were done in 1989 for the 350th anniversary and then we started scoping out future meetings."
The 12 other members include Veronica Wallace, Anita Catardi, Barbara Hemming, William Leete, Carl Balestracci, Gene Bishop, Mary Beeman, David Rosenthal, Margaret Livingston, Stephen Page, Karen Stephens, and Janet Testa.
The committee's next meeting is Monday, March 26. There, the group will discuss plans to organize a number of subcommittees in order to help get as many residents, businesses, school leaders, and town organizations on board as possible.
"We will be looking for and seeking additional volunteers. The record showed that over 200 people volunteered on the committees and subcommittees [in 1989], so while this is kind of what I'll call the steering committee that's in place so far, there are a lot of subcommittees and people getting involved that are yet to be determined," McGlone said.
The group hopes to have everything in place by October 2013 with a full year of celebration kicking off in January 2014.
Members on the committee are eager to get things going and are reminiscing about the last celebration event for the town's 350th anniversary. Members are hoping to bring back certain events from that year and are also planning to conjure up some new ideas.
"There will be certain traditional events that will...be built into the celebration," McGlone said, singling out the Guilford Art Center Expo as one possibility. "We hope to identify some other unique events that might become part of our future, as an every year occurrence type thing."
For the 350th celebration, the town held about 30 events that were earmarked for the anniversary. The Yale Whiffenpoofs and the New Haven Symphony held special performances during that year, and there was a Harbor Festival at the town marina with music, boat parades, and boat rides.
One member of the group said that she even has some ideas in mind for the highly anticipated celebration.
"We usually have a citizens' parade, but one of thing I tossed out is that we can have a parade of decades," Catardi said.
Both Catardi and McGlone noted that many events grew out of the 1989 celebration and are now being incorporated on an annual basis. They hope to have the same impact with this celebration, coming up with new ideas that will then be presented as events every year going forward.
"Everything is up in the air now. It's very complex, so it's going to be almost two years of activities," Catardi said, adding, "2013 will be a big buildup with lots to do. It should be very exciting."
After the March 26 meeting, the committee will then meet every first and third Monday of the month at the Town Hall at 5:15 p.m.