HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-03-20-TCC-min Town Celebrations Committee
Minutes of Meeting
March 20, 2019
Lexington Community Center
Members Present
Lorain Marquis, Chair; June Baer, Suzanne Caton, Linda Dixon, Karen Gaughan, Cerise Jalelian, Paul
Jenkins, Julie Miller, Sandy Podgorski, Wei Ding, Mary Hutton
Members Not Present
Glen Bassett, Carol Flynn, Rita Pandey, Dave Taylor, Bob Tracey, Sam Zales, Geetha Padaki, Kim
Coburn, Sue Stering, Wayne Miller, Bill Mix, Sondra Lucente, Gresh Lattimore.
Business:
• The chair reported that a quorum was present and the meeting was called to order at 7:09 pm.
• Minutes from the meeting of March 13, 2019 were approved.
• Linda Dixon reported that she and Lorain met with the Lexington Superintendent of Schools,
Julie Hackett. Ms. Hackett offered to send a cover letter with her newsletter that will encourage
students and their parents to attend the parade. In her old town, she said the elementary schools
would all create a float for the parade and would compete for which school had the best team
sprit in creating its float. She will suggest that there are four ways to get involved in the parade:
1. Any children who want to can march in the morning parade.
2. Children can decorate their bikes and ride in either morning or afternoon parades.
3. Children can march in the afternoon parade as "parade ambassadors," carrying a
banner.
4. Elementary School float contest.
Sandy will be the point person for the morning parade. Linda will be the point person for the
parade ambassadors and Lorain will be the point person for the afternoon parade.
Linda further reported that representatives of TCC would be invited by the superintendent to
attend a monthly meeting of the PTOs.
• Looking ahead to future years, Lorain said she would like the committee to consider having an
essay contest for Patriot's Day—maybe by the elementary school students.
• The next TCC meeting will be on March 27, 2019.
Patriots' Day, April 15, 2019:
• Lorain asked Paul, Wayne and Dave Taylor (who plans to be in town for the week of the
parade)to be in charge of assigning space to all the units for lining up at the beginning of the
parade.
• Lorain reported that Norwich is planning to participate in the parade, as is Hanscom Honor
Guard. Lorain further informed the meeting that we had received an application from the US
Naval Sea Cadets.
• Suzanne reported that we had about 23, 24 sponsors. We currently have $7,850 in new
sponsorship donations and $7,500 in credits from last year. Oasis Systems is our newest Gold
Level Sponsor. There was some discussion of making Rancatore's a sponsor, due to its
contribution of 50 $5.00 gift certificates.
• Julie Miller volunteered to contact civic groups in the town such as the Elks, the Rotary, the
Masons, Chamber of Commerce, etc. to see if they would like to have a unit march in the .
parade.
• Lorain suggested that a special invitation be sent to Town Meeting members to march in the
Morning parade.
• Linda suggested asking Doug Lucente to invite former White Tricorn Hat winners to march as
their own unit in the parade.
• Lorain reported that she requested buses to take people from the high school to the beginning of
the parade and confirmed that Mary and Scott Hutton would be at the high school to direct
people to the buses. Lorain also noted that we would need two cars from Peter Kelley in
addition to John Carol's car.
• Lorain ran through the ceremony for the Green.
• Karen is in charge of inviting members of the clergy to participate in the event.
• Wayne will be in charge of providing water(maybe Stop & Shop donation?).
• Geetha plans to do a video.
Approval of Parade Applications
The Committee approved the applications of the following units involving fees:
• Hot Tamales Brass Band
• Lexington Fire Honor Guard
• Tony Barry Band
The Committee pre-authorized the application of the following unit if it would accept a lower fee:
• New England Historical Vehicles
The meeting adjourned at 8:43 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Mary Hutton, Co-Secretary