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PLANNING AND PRODUCING COMMUNITY CELEBRATIONS AND SPECIAL EVENTS By Jane Goydos, Business Manager, Lakewood Historical Society; Chairperson of the 1989 Centennial Commission; and Co-chairperson of the 1991 Lakewood Bill of Rights Commission Local History Notebook, July / August 1992 One of the best ways for a historical society or museum to increase its visibility is to become involved in a community-wide celebration or special event. The Lakewood Historical Society played a major role in Lakewood's centennial celebration in 1989 and in the community’s Bill of Rights celebration in 1991, enhancing the organization's reputation, providing a positive shared experience for its members and the community, and raising funds for society projects. This Local History Notebook discusses aspects of mounting community celebrations such as these, but many of the observations can also be applied to events of lesser scope such as anniversary celebrations, exhibit openings, and special events associated with fund-raising programs. Start Early "The early bird gets the worm" is a useful admonition for planners of big celebrations. A community centennial requires a head start of at least two years. The necessary fund-raising for seed money takes more time than you think it will. Organizing committees and getting them moving is often a matter of overcoming inertia ("A body at rest tends to stay at rest"). Effective publicity programs require long lead times to produce materials and to get them into the hands of the media in time to meet deadlines which can be as much as months in advance of dates of publication. Form a Steering Committee What would life be like without committees? Pretty dull, I bet. A good steering committee and energetic working committees are essential to a successful major event. The steering committee for a community celebration needs to have representation from all areas of the community. Local government, schools, senior citizens, civic organizations, hospitals, the chamber of commerce, and churches should all participate in some way. On the other hand, a steering committee should not be too large in number. A committee of more than twenty-five members can become unwieldy. As the steering committee is being formed, select an enthusiastic chairperson capable of guiding and motivating the group and delegating responsibility. This person will be the key player in the game. It is essential that he or she be fully committed to the task, prepared to see it through to its conclusion. The steering committee for Lakewood's centennial celebration was called the Lakewood Centennial Commission. Twenty-seven men and women served on the Commission including the mayor of Lakewood, Anthony C. Sinagra.Frame Goals and Themes First priority of the steering committee must be to establish the overall goal or goals of a celebration or special event. A goal of educating the public might call for a publication, whereas a goal of including everyone in the community in the celebration might indicate a parade or picnic. After much discussion, the Lakewood Centennial Commission defined its goals as shown in the chart below: Goals of the Lakewood Centennial Celebration 1. Increase community awareness of Lakewood's heritage.2. Increase the public's awareness of what is available in Lakewood--merchants, schools, cultural activities, etc. 3. Update school materials on local history. 4. Publish a new local history. 5. Plan activities that will interest all age groups and income levels. Involve as many people as possible in events so as to augment hometown pride. 6. If there are monies remaining after the expenses of the centennial celebration have been paid, they are to be divided equally and donated to the restoration of the Lakewood Historical Society's Nicholson House and the refurbishing of the Lakewood Park band shell. Naming a theme is often an essential step in tying together all of the elements of a celebration. Singularly, a logo is often useful in identifying components of a major event. A committee’s brainstorming for a theme and/or a logo can be one of the most enjoyable parts of the planning process. The theme should be specific. The Lakewood Centennial Commission chose "Lakewood - A Century of Hometown Pride." This told the public exactly what the celebration was all about. The theme of the Lakewood Bill of Rights celebration was "The Bill of Rights – Celebrating 200 Years." Use the theme or logo on all publicity. Whenever it is seen, people will be reminded of the celebration.Plan the Events and Activities Select from the myriad possibilities events and activities that will complement the chosen goals. Ask the organizers of existing annual events in your community to adopt your theme for one year. For example, annual Independence Day parades and fireworks displays can fit right into a centennial celebration, as can an annual tour of homes. Both of these types of programs were integrated into the Lakewood centennial celebration. From your vantage point of a historical society or history museum, you will want to be sure that the interpretation of history is given a primary role. Think about what is unique to your community or organization. Is your event going to commemorate a specific date or anniversary? Has there been a historic first in your community? Is there a famous person in your local history? Have well known products or services been developed in your area? First families can provide interesting characters to portray in a special event or celebration, and interesting architecture can make historic churches and homes focal points. Every community has its own unique combination of personalities, events, and local traditions to draw upon. Use them in your planning. Make your event significant historically. Let the celebration complement your organization's mission statement. Don't plan a boring celebration. Be entertaining as well as educational. Try to get the public to really feel history through theatrics, reenactments, and first-hand experiences such as dressing up. A centennial pageant, a musical salute to the City of Lakewood, "Century Notes & Footnotes," was a major event in Lakewood's centennial celebration. Held at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday August 4 and 5, 1989, in the Lakewood Civic Auditorium, the musical extravaganza was performed entirely by amateurs. The pageant featured local people singing, dancing, and portraying early settlers and community leaders and character types of the twentieth century. One individual impersonated James Nicholson, first settler of Rockport (the original name of the community). The various acts (suffragettes of the early twenties, marathon dancers of the late forties) were interspersed with readings of student essays of 1910, 1918, 1936, 1946, and 1952. An original song, "Hello Lakewood," was composed for the pageant.Set up Subcommittees and Enlist Recruits Each activity or event in the celebration requires a subcommittee. Each subcommittee needs to have a chairperson. Ideally, each subcommittee chairperson will be a member of the steering committee. This is the way the subcommittees of the Lakewood centennial celebration were set up (see the chart at the top of the next page). A large community-wide celebration requires a public meeting so that all members of the community have an opportunity to get involved if they would like to. The overall plan should be presented to the community at the meeting and, then, the meeting should be broken up into subcommittee interest groups. Those in attendance can select the area in which they would like to work. This arrangement proved very effective for Lakewood's centennial celebration. Each subcommittee gained many valuable community volunteers. An example of the workings of one of the subcommittees can be seen in the church tour subcommittee. Lakewood has a rich church history. This community of 60,000 people supports thirty-five churches representing eighteen denominations. Twelve volunteers joined the subcommittee at the public meeting. Meeting frequently, the subcommittee developed an outstanding tour of twenty-eight churches that turned out to be one of the centennial's most popular events. Church vans and Office on Aging buses circulated around a loop encompassing all of the churches, so tour-goers did not have to use their own cars. The buses traveled continuously during the hours of 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on the tour day. The churches provided volunteers in their buildings to guide visitors and point out items of interest. Some of the churches offered light refreshments such as lemonade and cookies. The subcommittee obtained a short history and a line drawing from each of the churches on the tour which they used to create a souvenir tour booklet. The booklet contained a map of the city marked with the church locations and the route of the bus tour. There was a modest admission charge of $2.50 for adults for the tour to cover the cost of the booklet. The subcommittee for the church tour worked independently of the other subcommittees for the most part (except for publicity and funding), keeping the steering committee apprised of its actions through its chairperson. The cultural exhibit subcommittee worked with many of the community's clubs and organizations to mount exhibits of their histories to complement the community exhibit material contributed by the historical society. Two weekends of special events bracketed Hometown Pride Week July 28 to August 6. The Hometown Pride Week subcommittee enlisted the Lakewood Jaycees as cosponsors for a community parade held Saturday morning of the first weekend. Civic groups and neighborhoods vied for "best float" contest honors. Participants got involved with the community's history as they researched subjects for their float designs.
Pursue Fund-raising Possibilities A community event usually requires fund-raising. Once the activities have been selected and the subcommittees formed, a budget should be established. What will each of the planned activities cost? Each subcommittee submits its estimate, including any notation of possible revenue sources such as admission charges that may partially or wholly offset the planned expenses. The resulting figures give the steering committee and the fund-raising and finance committee an approximation of the total amount needed. Fund-raising for community events can take many forms: going after grants from corporate entities with an interest in the community, making appeals for donations from individuals, admission charges, sales of souvenirs, charges to concessionaires, sales of advertising in printed programs. For a community-wide event, it is a good idea to make it possible for everyone in the community to contribute if they would like to. Keep in mind that people give to get something in return--their names in a program as patrons or sponsors, or tickets to a particular event. For the Lakewood centennial celebration, the steering and fund-raising committees obtained an initial $4,000 planning grant from the Lakewood City Council. They printed 20,000 copies of a program book which was used throughout the centennial and distributed free of charge to attendees. The printer customized the program description part of the book for each event. The fund-raising committee sold advertising in the program book to companies doing business in the area, raising nearly $70,000.Deciding to limit the number of items that would be sold as souvenirs and obtaining advice from their most likely market, kids, the fund-raising committee had the logo imprinted onto white t-shirts, sweat shirts, and baseball caps. Sales of these items returned $10,000 in net profit. The fund-raising subcommittee also solicited sponsorships for as little as $10 from businesses and individuals in the community. Contributors were given a centennial decal they could place in their shop window or in their car. The committee also tried to raise funds by selling a poster, but sales fell short of the goal. The net results were extremely positive. After all expenses had been met, the Lakewood centennial celebration ended up with a surplus of $22,000, which was divided evenly between the restoration of the Nicholson House, a project already under way by the Lakewood Historical Society, and the refurbishing of the Lakewood Park band shell, a project sponsored by the City of Lakewood and the Lakewood/Rocky River Rotary Club.Conduct a Complete Publicity Program An audience does not automatically show up, no matter how well the event is planned. Publicity is always an important ingredient in the success of any type of program, whether it be a newsletter notice for a members' meeting or a Bob Hope network television special video-taped on the grounds of Ameriflora to stimulate tourist travel to Columbus's quincentenary observance. For a major community-wide event, both of these extremes and everything in between can be useful. In particular, local media need to be utilized to their fullest potential. It does not hurt to have a newspaper editor or a radio or television station manager on the steering committee. When the publicity subcommittee first meets, it should establish which facets of the program are to be publicized, how they are to be publicized, and when. This is extremely important as media deadlines are almost always earlier than one would think, and it almost always takes longer to gather and arrange the necessary information than what one would imagine. In addition to employing all the customary press releases public service announcements, and displays in merchants' windows that one might expect in a community centennial program, the Lakewood centennial publicity subcommittee arranged to have the City of Lakewood print and hang centennial banners all around the city (the subcommittee provided the fabric). The publicity committee scheduled interviews for the chairperson of the steering committee, the director of the pageant, and the author of the new history with the local cable television station. The committee saw to it that relevant items about the observance were placed with newsletters of organizations of all types in the community including those of the Kiwanis Club, PTA, hospitals, and city employees.Document the Hard Work and Wrap It Up Historical organizations know the importance of collecting the ingredients of a celebration and finding a proper repository for them. Important things to save are photographs, videotapes, minutes, correspondence, clippings, and souvenir items. Good records will influence future projects and set a precedent for organization of future events. The Lakewood Centennial Commission enjoyed and learned from its perusal of the records left by the fifty-year anniversary committee. Thanking all of the participants is a warm way to conclude a celebration. A personal note expressing gratitude for a job well done should go to the individuals you know who contributed to the program's success. Public acknowledgment, such as a letter to the editor in the local paper, should be made of the services rendered by public departments from the street sweepers to the mayor's office. After the last thank you note is written, get the whole steering committee together to congratulate each other, bask in the glory, and have a celebration of your own.Additional Reading Keith Petersen. Historical Celebrations: A Handbook for Organizers of Diamond jubilees, Centennials, and Other Community Anniversaries. Idaho State Historical Society, 1986. The Local History Notebook is edited and published by the Ohio Historical Society's Local History Office in order to bring useful information to people working in the local history field. The selections of subjects and authors is based on the OAHSM Editorial Board's and the Local History Office's determination of issues which are timely in nature and lasting in scope. The reference inserts are copyrighted 1992 by the Ohio Historical Society. Reprints are available; please specify volume and number. For further information, contact: Local History OfficeOhio Historical Society 1982 Velma Avenue Columbus, Ohio 43211 Phone: (614) 297-2340 Toll-free: (800) 858-6878 Fax: (614) 297-2318 oahsm@ohiohistory.org 
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