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LEXINGTON CELEBRATIONS COMMITTEE
Season of 1955-1956
Minutes of Second Meeting, Wednesday, September 28,
1955
The second meeting of the Lexington Cele-
brations Committee was held in the Selectments
Room at the Town Office Building, Wednesday evening,
September 28, 1955, at 8 o'clock.
Present were Mrs. Cheever, Mr Gustin, Mr
Kennedy, Mr Rooney, Mr Sawyer.
In the absence of Mr Lewis on account of
illness, Mr Kennedy acted as Chairman Owing to
the small attendance and the fact that none of the
Selectmen were present in spite of promises by the
Chairman of the Board of Selectmen that either he
or one of the Selectmen would attend this meeting,
the Committee was hampered in the amount and kind
of business which it could transact
However, the Committee received an oral re-
port by Miss McIntyre upon the manner in which the REPORT FOR
Schools are going to give heed to United Nations SCHOOLS
Day Miss McIntyre said that in the schools, they -
devoted about two weeks to the study of United MISS
Nations During the first week they studied the McINTYRE
structure of the United Nations in general and
then to humanize the program they made a study of
the work of some of the specialized agencies, for
example, What the Farm Program of the United
Nations was doing in Mexico In the second week
they chose some special country and devoted their
attention to that country trying to learn what they
uvula abouL IL LaeL year, for example, iL was
India This year they have in mind France, Canada
or Mexico and she rather thought that they would
study France because she understood that the Rotary
Club was going to take France for their subject
this year and it might be wise to integrate the
activities Furthermore, she thought that France
was undergoing difficulties and we needed a lot of
understanding in order to sympathize with her and
help her. To a suggestion that Germany might be
chosen as a country to study, she replied that the
schools were going to do some study of Germany and
use the two or three girls from there who are
pupils in our schools now Apparently one of her
main reasons for speaking of France was that the
Rotarians had determined upon that country and that
it might be more valuable not to scatter our
S
energies The Rotarians could get speakers some of
whom might also speak in our schools She felt that
the Committee on Celebrations could be helpful if
they could get two or three speakers or a film and
furnish transportation for the speakers One of the
sources of speakers would be students at M I T. ,
B.0 , or Harvard and she felt also that the French
Consulate would be helpful She said it meant a
great deal to the speaker if someone from Lexington
would go and get him or her and see that he or she
got back home instead of simply giving the speaker
directions how to get to Lexington She said that
she thought the Committee should confine its activi-
ties to getting a speaker for the Junior and Senior
High School students but that if we went into the
problem of getting speakers for the lower grades, we
should work in conjunction with the particular
teachers in order to be sure to get someone who could
interest the children
She thought it was better to get either some-
one from the country concerned who could speak
reasonably good English or someone from the United
States who had lived in and made a study of the
country rather than just to get someone who had made
a tour of the country and gave his or her impressions.
She thought the Committee on World Affairs at 10
Arlington Street had some good films and mentioned
particularly, "World Without End, " "This is the
Challenge, " and "World Understanding " These would
be on the work of the United Nations in general but
she did not have anpsuggestions to offer about films
on France in particular. Miss McIntyre said that
she knew the art classes in the schools designed the
posters for United Nations Day and she thought it
would be helpful if our Committee would choose two or
three and have them displayed.
At the invitation of the Committee, Mrs
REPORT FROM Pigford, representative from the League of Women
LEAGUE OF Voters, told us a little about the activities last
WOMEN VOTERS year of that League in connection with United Nations
Day. She said that the League had made no plans for
MRS. PIGFORD this year but that they would be glad to help us in
any way we wished. She offered as a suggestion the
dissemination of United Nations literature, a dinner
and a speaker, perhaps a square dance, also posters
and the display of flags She pointed out it was
difficult to integrate the adults and children in
such a program
After Miss McIntyre and Mrs. Pigford departed,
the Committee had a long discussion We felt hampered L.
becauseseveral questions needed to be settled by the
9
�. presence of a Selectman and further by the fact that
so few of the Committee were present It was agreed
that we would have to proceed with the United Nations
Day celebration to the extent of backing up the
schools but that further activities of the Committee
would have to wait over until a later meeting and
until we received some clarification of our posi-
tion from the Selectmen Mr Rooney tentatively
agreed to act as Chairman of a Committee on Publicity
with the particular task of contacting the ministers
It was suggested that a good way to do this would be
for a letter to be written to Mr George Morse as
Secretary of the Council of Ministers and a separate
letter to eachof the Catholic Church clergymen,
these letters to be signed by Mr Lewis as Chairman
and inviting them to emphasize United Nations on the
Sunday before United Nations Day That would be
Sunday, October twenty-third Mrs Cheever agreed
to cooperate with the schools, in particular Miss
McIntyre and the art department of the schools Mr
Gustin practically guaranteed that he would bring in
a Selectman at the next meeting The next meeting
was set for Wednesday, October 5 It was agreed to
see that each of the members of the Committee was
personally contacted by telephone to notify them of
the meeting of October 5 and various members present
agreed to get in contact with those who were not
present, with specific assignments in each case
The meeting adjourned at ten o'clock
Lewis Kennedy