SOUTHWICK – The “Celebrate Southwick 250” committee held their monthly meeting at the Southwick Town Hall on Monday night.
The Celebrate Southwick 250 Committee met for their monthly meeting at the Southwick Town Hall on Monday evening. (Photo by Greg Fitzpatrick)
Chairman Jim Putnam kicked off the meeting by introducing all members of the committee and then welcoming the new individuals in attendance, something that he wants to see become a constant at each meeting.
“This is a great group but we’re still out there recruiting additional volunteers,” said Putnam.
The majority of the meeting centered around all of the work groups reporting on what they’ve done since the last meeting in August.
Celebration Events Work Group member Freda Brown spoke about that group’s primary focus.
“We want to involve the whole town with the events,” said Brown.
In order to do that, a survey has been created to send to businesses and organizations in town to give them the opportunity to be in the directory and events calendar of the Celebrate Southwick 250 committee. The survey allows businesses and organizations to give their input for what they’d like to see for events as well as check off the events that interest them.
Interested parties will be able to receive the survey by emailing [email protected].
Russ Fox, who is part of the Fundraising and Budget Work Group, informed the attendees that the committee has $50,000 from the Town of Southwick as well as $25,000 from the state. Fox also encourages anyone to donate and to do so they can make their donation to the Southwick Civic Fund, the non-profit organization handling all any money that is donated. Fox is optimistic that both small businesses and larger corporations in the community along with residents will see the importance of this celebration and donate to make it something special.
The Historical Content Work Group is considering having souvenirs and maybe creating a calendar. Lee Hamberg, the chairman of the work group would want the calendar to be different and unique from the past.
“We don’t want to duplicate what already has been published,” said Hamberg.
Parade and Float Work Group Chairman George Tichy said that the parade scheduled for October 10, 2020 could cost around $25,000. That cost could vary as he’s looking to find out how much police detail would be needed for them to work the parade. Tichy has been working with Sgt. Kirk Sanders of the Southwick Police Department, who’s also the safety officer in town, on the parade planning.
The current parade route has it starting at Feeding Hills Road near the schools, heading west to College Highway then turning south and ending at the Southwick Town Hall.
To encourage the younger generations play a role in preparing for the 250th celebration, the Outreach and Social Media Work Group is working on launching their Facebook. They are also working on using the town’s connect city system, which is the automated phone system that is used to alert all residents in town.
In 2020, the town of Southwick will be celebrating their 250th anniversary. The town was incorporated as a separate community on November 7, 1770.
The committee’s plan is to have an event each month and have the year-long celebration begin in December of 2019 and end in November of 2020.
