The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink About2024-10-23-TCC-min TOWN CELEBRATIONS COMMITTEE Virtual Meeting MINUTES October 23,2024 Members Present(12 members;no vacancy): Glen Bassett,co-chair; Linda Dixon; Dave Grabel;Yifang Gong; Cerise Jalelian; Sandy Podgorski; Sue Stering, Karen Tyler,Veterans Liaison. Absent: Mary Hutton; Gresh Lattimore; Sondra Lucente; Lorain Marquis, Geetha Padaki. Quorum;7Full Committee Members, Subcommittee Members Present(15 members;5 vacancies): Sudha Balasuryan;Jamie Lee; Pam Winters; Hong Xie. Absent: Steve Cole; Bonnie Karshbaum;Ashley Rooney; Mirela Vaso; Huma Wasim; Perla Walling-Sotolong 7:05 PM: Co-Chair Glen Bassett called the meeting to order and declared that a quorum was present. Business The minutes of October 9,2024 were approved. Veterans Breakfast Saturday,November 2 • 43 signups to date. • Last year,total attendance was 88 guests plus 12 servers= 100 • Linda announced the two LHS students selected to read their essays: Emily Wu, essay titled Honor, Not justAchnowledge, and Rithi Sriram,for her essay, My Hope is Yours. • Judges from the Lexington Veterans Association leadership selected two art posters to be framed and raffled off as part of the breakfast ceremony. • Lorain announced a logistics/final planning meeting with the KofC at Heritage Hall on Thursday, October 24 at 3:00 p.m. • Sue will arrange for two history teachers from Lexington High to receive invitations. • Wilson Farms will donate 3 dozen carnations; we will use these as centerpieces. We need vases! Committee members are asked to lend bud vases. Linda and Sue have several. • We'll add a line in the script: you're welcome to take the carnations not the vases! • We will invite Tom Dahill,WWII veteran and subject of winning essay,to the breakfast. Car Parade November 11 • The William Diamond,Jr. Fife and Drum Corps will participate. • Jamie will oversee the aligning of groups at the Green. • Cerise will confirm with Fire Dept where their honor guard will be placed. • Tentative placement is: Fire and police honor guards near the Minute Man statue and Minutemen line up at Obelisk. • Karen will provide flags and markers.Will check storage room for leftovers from 2023. • Flags attached to cars weren't collected at the end of last year's parade,so new ones will need to be ordered.All agreed that these flags are important! • Sue thinks the classic car club,all Vietnam vets,can provide 5-7 cars. • Sandy has formally requested LexMedia coverage. It depends on available manpower, but they gave her 80%assurance that they could cover this event. • Sandy shared final copy of thank you/appreciation poster and sought edits/additions. Patriots'Day 2025 • Dave reported that 33 applications have been received to date, among them many"no brainers", i.e., longtime parade participants, no increase in fee. • Application deadline is early December. • Will start to construct the acceptance package. Might need to write and say, "you've been accepted, details to follow." • Outreach Plan, Step One: Identify units who received invitations from TCC,and reach out to those who have not yet responded. For example,we've invited 20 marching bands, and only one has responded. • Dave alerted us that many Reenactors, not just the Minute Men,will be involved with activities on Battle Road before the parade on Saturday,April 19. They will need transport to the parade lineup.The Minute Men have reserved a bus to travel to the Scottish Rite parking lot. They will join the parade closer to the end than their usual place near the start. Budget and Sponsorship • Dave and Lorain met with Lex250 fundraising person, a professional fundraiser. He has ambitious plans. • Last year, TCC raised$23,000 in sponsorships. With Town contribution=total$60,000. • Lorain feels we could raise$30,000 in sponsorships in 2025 • At the very least,that gives us$70,000 to work with. • The amount of parade applicant fees to date totals $45,0000. • Dave would like to see a parade budget of$100,0000. We can tap into our gift fund if necessary. Suzie Barry has indicated she is ok with this.The current balance in the gift fund is $75,000 plus. Lex 250 • Cerise,who served as Master of Ceremonies for the Drone Show on Sunday evening, October 20, is working on the after-action report. • The committee has identified 25 houses,or their sites,that existed in 1775 and were"witness houses"that overlooked the Battle of Lexington. Other Business • TCC has been assigned the date of Veterans Day, November 11,to gather at the Lex250 Calendar in front of the Town Office Building and turn the page. All TCC members are invited to meet at the Lex250 Calendar in TCC jackets, shirts, and tricorne hats for a group photo. We will then travel to the Community Center for the Car Parade. • 8:30PM: Meeting Adjourned. NEXT MEETINGS: Veterans Day Working group: Wednesday, 10/30 at 7:00 p.m. Parade Working Group:Thursday, 10/31 at 7:00 p.m. Full Committee:Wednesday, 11/6, 11:00 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Linda Dixon, Member