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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-09-11-TCC-min Town Celebrations Committee Minutes of Meeting September 11, 2019 Lexington Community Center Members Present Lorain Marquis, Chair; June Baer, Suzanne Caton, Linda Dixon, Karen Gaughan, Cerise Jalelian, Julie Miller, Bill Mix, Geetha Padaki, Sandy Podgorski, Sue Stering, Members Not Present Glen Bassett, Kim Coburn, Wei Ding, Mary Hutton, Paul Jenkins, Gresh Lattimore, Sondra Lucente, Wayne Miller, Rita Pandey, Dave Taylor, Bob Tracey, Sam Zales Guests: Gina Rada, Jill Hai Business: • The chair reported that a quorum was present and the meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm. • Minutes from the meeting of June 5, 2019 were approved. • Lorain asked the committee to observe a minute of silence to mark the anniversary of 9/11/01. • Lorain reminded the committee about the remembrance program for Mary Gillespie that will be held at the Depot from 10:30 to 12 on Saturday, 9/21. • Geetha Padaki reported that she is attending the Community Coalition meetings for the IAAL and will be happy to also talk about the TCC at the meetings. She requested copies of the TCC recruiting brochure to take to the meetings. Veteran's Day Programs: • Sandy Podgorski reported on preparations for the Veterans Day Breakfast, which will be held on Saturday, November 2: • Kielty Hall has been reserved • Neillio's has been notified • Still to be done: Emails and notices need to be sent to the veterans we have addresses for • Gina Rada will handle the tickets for the breakfast. She will have the tickets at the Community Center and will drop some off at Michelson's Shoes. Gina is also putting a notice about the breakfast in the next Senior Newsletter. • Geetha reported that the IAAL would like to contribute to the Veterans Breakfast in some way, perhaps with a donation or with volunteers to help with the breakfast. Linda Dixon suggested that the IAAL could pay for the coffee served before the breakfast and Geetha agreed to take that suggestion back to the organization. • Sue Stering reported that the program in the High School to have students write essays about veterans has been started by the teaching staff. Sue hopes to get the High School Art Department also involved in the program. • Linda Dixon reported that Pat and Edith Flynn have been invited to participate in the Veterans Day Program held on Veterans Day in Cary Hall. • Gina Johnson has made some artwork of Pat Flynn's military career that will be presented to him at the Program. • Edith Flynn will give the keynote speech at the Program, which is still being developed. • Cerise Jalelian reported that the coach of the High School football team plans to honor one or two veterans at each pre-game dinner for the season. Pat Flynn was honored at last week's dinner. • Cerise also noted that the coach wants the football team to participate in the Veterans Day Parade and also that the Lexington Youth Commission want to participate. Linda Dixon suggested that Cerise contact other High School sports coaches to see if they are interested in having their teams march in the parade. Cerise agreed to contact the coaches, plus contact the teacher advisor to the Lexington Youth Commission to invite them to march in the Veterans Day Parade. • Gina noted that the Lexington TCC website pages need to be updated for this year's Veterans Day programs, especially with regard to the starting time for the Parade (10 am) and the location and start time for the program/ceremony in Cary Hall (11 am). Other Related Business: • Linda reported that as part of the town-wide effort to honor World War II veterans, they are trying to identify these veterans living in Lexington and also previous Lexington residents. • Jill Hai reported that a Lexington delegation will be visiting Antony, France, during the upcoming weekend. They will visit Normandy and lay wreaths at the site. Jill proposed to take pictures of the activities and send them to the TCC. Patriots Day: June Baer, who is chair of the TCC sub-committee created to review Patriots Day issues and make proposals for changes, reported on the sub-committee's activities over the summer. • The committee considered doing away with the Sunrise Youth Parade but still holding the ceremonies that are held on the Green following the parade. Timing and location for the ceremonies is still being discussed. • Cerise suggested having the ceremonies on the Saturday before Patriots Day just before the Parker's Revenge/Tower Park battle. She also suggested that to make the occasion more family-oriented, LexFUN should be involved and food trucks should be invited/ • June reported that changes to the Patriots Day Parade have been discussed and that the committee is calling a stakeholders meeting in early October to get feedback on possible changes. • June noted that trying to change both the Sunrise Youth Parade and the afternoon parade this year may be too much to achieve so the committee may decide to only push for the Sunrise Youth Parade changes and put off changes to the afternoon parade to 2021. The meeting adjourned at 8:05 pm. Respectfully submitted, Suzanne Caton, Secretary