WHITMAN – The answer to the question above is — you throw an awesome party.
By the time Whitman’s bicentennial year rolls around on March 4 2075, Richard Rosen will have left the town a successful blueprint for a proper celebration of community.
Rosen, who has chaired the committees that planned 20 years of WinterFests, two years of New Years Eve Cookie Drops and the town’s 125th anniversary (a quasquicentennial), has once again answered the call to be Whitman’s community party planner.
“It’s going to be a wonderful experience for the town of Whitman for a couple of months,” Rosen says.
As Whitman 150 Committee Chair, Rosen updated the Select Board, Tuesday, Feb. 4 on plans and preparations for the town’s sesquicentennial (150-year) celebration this spring.
A central part of the events is the burial of a time capsule to be reopened in 50 years. The capsule buried on the Town Hall front lawn during 125th anniversary celebrations in 2000, is scheduled to be reopened in 2075.
That capsule, according to the Whitman Times at the time, contains police and fire badges, town reports, newspapers. They are seeking similar items, “fairly small in size to include in the new time capsule.
Rosen’s attention to detail has included asking the two men who supervised lowering of the last time capsule into the ground – former Fire Chief Timothy Grenno and past WinterFest Committee member Thomas Burnett – to do the honors again.
“I want the same two guys to lower the capsule 25 years later,” Rosen said this week.
That new time capsule, will be buried in a another area of Town Hall property on April 27.
“We did that 25 years ago, and I know where that capsule, so we’re going to bury this on the other side of the lawn,” he said.
NorthEaston Savings bank, a huge sponsor of the program – as they were 25 years ago – is paying for the time capsule itself and will serve as the drop-off point for anyone who wants to drop off something to be included in the time capsule, Rosen said, noting the bank’s Bedford and Auburn streets branch will be the location to bring in donations too be included.
“What we’re asking for is stuff to be included in the time capsule, really no bigger than a box of shoes or a Teddy bear,” Rosen said.
Rosen began his Feb. 4 presentation by thanking the Select Board for giving him and the committee the opportunity to plan the celebration, as well as the police and fire departments and the Department of Public Works “not for what they’ve done for us yet, but for what they will do in the future.”
“I also want to thank the town clerk [Dawn Varley],” he said. “She is also going to be of help in the future – she just doesn’t know it yet, and I want to thank her in advance.”
The Committee has been meeting for several months, and has also been meeting with the Historical Commission, according to Rosen.
“A lot of towns – and I think I’ve said this before when I do celebrations – do one or two events, and it’s all historical,” he said. “We decided that, what we want to do [was] the same thing we did 25 years ago – have a lot of events and make them fun.”
Rosen said his committee is working on the fun part, and the historical society is doing the historical part.
“It’s working our extremely well right now,” he said. “But there’s things to announce that we haven’t in the past.”
Among those departures from tradition are an April 5 dinner at the Spellman Center of Holy Ghost Church, to which he would like to sell a few hundred tickets, which are on sale now. Rosen pointed to the Spellman Center as an historic touchstone of the Whitman community.
Tickets are $50 each and are available at the Spellman Center, online or contact Rosen at his office at Rosen Realty 89 Temple St. Select Board member Shawn Kain asked if a link could be added to the town website, Whitman-ma.gov. Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter said it hadn’t been done yet, but it could be added.
Rosen joked that he is technologically challenged.
“I’m still trying to figure out a fax machine,” Rosen said.
“Me, too, that’s why I asked how to get the tickets,” chair Dr. Carl Kowalski said with a laugh.
On Whitman Day, June 14, a concert from 6:30 to 9 p.m., will be followed by fireworks will be held at Memorial Field
School children will also be involved in the events, Rosen said.
Younger children will be drawing something that makes Whitman a great place to live, while older students will be writing an essay of the same topic.
“We’ve reached out to the schools,” he added. “That’s going to be done in the classroom,” he said, noting that teachers will assist in the process of picking the winners. “There’s going to be winners in each class, from kindergarten to grade wight. Those will be put into the time capsule, and the winners from each grade will receive a bank book with $50 in it from Northeastern Savings Bank”
Rosen said in an aside, “They don’t give out savings bonds anymore.”
The children will also be asked to be in the parade.
“We are looking for anybody that wants to be in the parade, with the exception of political stuff, because we don’t want political stuff, although we will have a lot of politicians, I’m sure in the parade,” Rosen said. What the organizers are looking for are floats, Scout troops, bands, vintage cars and other groups usually seen in a parade.
Merchandise will be available to help fund the events, @whitman150years on Instagram, or via email at [email protected].