Portsmouth Volunteers Discuss 375th Anniversary Events

Twenty Portsmouth residents met recently at the Portsmouth Free Library to discuss plans for celebrating the 375th anniversary of Portsmouth’s founding next year.

The Portsmouth town charter was signed in March 1638, making the town 375 years old next year in 2013. Attendees included Town Administrator John Klimm and Town Council President Joe Robicheau as well as representatives from several town committees and other organizations.

The discussion focused on the process of organizing and planning events throughout the coming year. The consensus of the group was to use a decentralized approach, with a small steering group to provide overall coordination and to rely on existing town committees and other organizations to plan and conduct events within their areas of interests.

This is an opportunity for everyone in Portsmouth to get involved in celebrating our fascinating history, with the schools, town government, local businesses and organizations creating events to showcase the beauty and background of our town.

Some of the events being considered included concerts, art shows, community theater productions, sporting contests, revolutionary reenactments, local contests, business promotions and others. What kind of event would you like to see in celebration of our 375th year?

A Google user’s group has been set up to facilitate planning and coordination at https://groups.google.com/d/forum/portsmouth375  Join the conversation and get involved. The next meeting of the 375th exploratory group will be on 23 August at 3 PM in the Portsmouth Free Library when the steering group will be formed and key functional positions (Events, Fundraising, Publicity, etc.) identified. This meeting is open to the public, so come down and join us – the key to our success in this effort is getting everyone involved. 

In the interest of full disclosure, I organized the meeting and hope that we can generate lots of ethusiasm for this unique and historic occasion.