HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-09-09-TCC-min Town Celebrations Committee
Meeting Minutes
September 9, 2020
Virtual Meeting
Members Present
June Baer, Chair; Sondra Lucente, Steve Cole, Sue Stering, Gresh Lattimore, Lorain Marquis,
Geetha Padaki, Sandy Podgorski, Bill Mix, Cerise Jalelian,
Members Not Present
Kim Coburn, Karen Gaughan, Wayne Miller, Ashley Rooney, Sam Zales, Glen Bassett,
Suzanne Caton, Wei Ding, Linda Dixon, Mary Hutton, Julie Miller, Rita Pandey
Select Board Liaison Present: Jill Hai
Business:
• June convened the meeting at 7:00 pm and stated there was a quorum present. She
then read the Town notice regarding the conduct of public virtual meetings.
• The committee approved the minutes of 8/19/2020.
• June will give an update about Veterans Day on Monday at the Select Board
meeting.
Salute to Veterans Breakfast 2020:
• Sandy had compiled a list of veterans from the names provided by Cerise from the
Breakfast events from previous years. This list is being scrubbed by Linda Dixon
and Gina Rada. The names on the list are mainly from Lexington and Bedford
areas. Some names are from outside these areas who are previous residents who
had moved away from Lexington but are still involved in the community.
• Electronic gift certificates ($10) purchased from a local Dunkin store will be sent to
-140 veterans in lieu of the traditional breakfast. For those without e-mail
addresses, the certificates will be mailed to the home address.
• June is yet to reach out to Dunkin.
• Total expenses are estimated to be around $2000 (200 * 10), the same as the costs
for catering from Neillio's every year.
• Jill asked if this amount is being funded by the town. If it is, she suggested
contacting Kim Katzenback as the town may have an account and might get a
discount.
• A short write up about the Veterans Day was sent to Gina to be included in the
newsletter sent out by her office.
Other Ideas
• Veterans Day Banner
o TCC can produce a banner with the text 'Lexington Honors our Vets on
Veterans Day' which can be printed and hung across the street near the
center (on Mass Ave or couple of other places where TCC is authorized to
put up banners).
o Jill suggested contacting Cathy Severance from the Town Manager Office
about specific policy on banners.
o Paul Jenkins had ordered banners through a company which is now closed
but they referred to another company in Sommerville. Jill suggested
contacting VistaPrint as well.
• Colonial Times cut-off date is Monday. June will contact them.
• Student Essays
o This year is the 75th Anniversary of WWII. Juniors from LHS will be asked to
write essays which are due on 16-Oct. From the entries, 20 essays will be
short listed by 21-Oct from which two winning essays will be selected.
Winning essays will be pre-recorded and included in the video of the
Veterans Day virtual program. Other essays will be published in the booklet.
o It was mentioned that there would be no posters or movie this year.
o The Arts department will not be submitting arts this year due to the COVID
situation.
Virtual Veterans Day 2020:
• This is not confirmed until it is approved on Monday at the board meeting.
• Mary Hutton is working on a 10-minute video.
• Emcee would be Sheila Widnall, former Secretary of Airforce. Linda Dixon is
reaching out to her and is fairly confident that she would agree.
• The video will also include a tribute to Dan Fenn. Steve is working on the 2- minute
segment.
• The video may include a concert (recorded video segment) from High school
musicians. Kim Coburn has reached out to LHS. Fall back option is to use previous
yearsmusic.
• Jill also suggested using music from previous events recorded by LexMedia if this is
not possible.
• Lexington WWII Committee will be unveiling a plaque for the 56 service members
who had given their lives in service. Recording of this event will be included at the
end of the segment.
• The video will also include 5-10 second snippets of veterans sharing their
experiences (taken from the WWII website).
• June asked the members to let her know if they are interested in getting involved in
this effort.
• Steve asked when he should have Dan Fenn's tribute part completed. June
mentioned that she would find out when this is needed and let him know.
• The committee had discussed other options for Veterans Day in the last meeting
including having a volley fired by the Minute Men on the Green, ringing the USS
Lexington bell on the Green, having veterans congregate on the Green (socially
distanced) and having the Girl Scouts hand them carnations.
o Volley firing requires permission from the Select Board and a 1-month lead
time is needed. Jill suggested allowing as much lead time as possible.
o Handing out flowers might be complicated in COVID situation (BOH may not
approve this) due to multiple people touching the same basket of flowers
unless the flower bouquets can somehow be separated and laid out
individually. The possibility of getting student volunteers deliver these to the
vets at home was also discussed.
Patriots Day 2021:
• June asked the committee to start thinking about options for Patriots Day 2021
since traditional celebrations and parades may not be possible by April 2021. Gresh
asked that the planning be conservative and not like traditional Patriots Day.
• Steve asked Jill if there had been any conversations about Patriots Day at the Select
Board. Jill replied that there has not been any discussion regarding this so far.
The meeting adjourned at 8:00 p.m. Next meeting: September 23, 2020
Respectfully submitted,
Geetha Padaki
Committee Member