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Lafayette Bicentennial Celebration shows the start -up day, costume ball

Lafayette Bicentennial Celebration shows the start -up day, costume ball

by

Israel Schuman
| Lafayette Journal & Courier

Lafayette, in – Your task was to plan a celebration of two centuries of local history.

They developed this plan in less than three years. The Lafayette Bicentennial Committee, which was founded in early 2023, to plan events for a year to ring the city's 200th birthday, on Sunday, comprised 13 members, the local schools, the parking department and the historical association together with other community members.

In monthly meetings, the committee members developed a calendar of 44 events from January to December. Some recorded the local main supports, like a two hundred -year -old Mosey in the Main Street, and a topic concert by the Lafayette Citizens band in the Colombian park on Monday evening. Others like the two hundred -year -old costume ball and the celebration of the founding day were brand new events with historical celebrations.

The ball, which will be on June 28 with the completion of the ticket sales on May 30, is intended as a “Premier event” of the year, said David Huhnke, chairman of the committee.

The committee encourages ball visitors (there is an age of 21 years) to dress according to the website eventbrite.com of dance in the best decades of the past 200 years. “Whatever people want to come in. It is not mandatory that they come in costumes, we just encourage it.” The best costumes, said Huhnke, will be awarded with the best costume prices. The inspiration of the ball was – suitable – historical. Huhnke said the city threw a ball for its hundred years of celebration in 1925. According to Journal & Courier Archives, a beauty competition also took place. This year a dinner, desserts and musical acts, including a soprano singer, and a swing band that has planned the year will be planned. I wanted to make sure that there was something for everyone. “The historical association organizes hiking tours all summer, and the Haan Museum has planned a number of historical exhibits and afternoon tea parties, which according to Eagle can offer fun for families.

Cooperation with Lafayette and Tippecanoe County School Systems will highlight the importance of the two hundred -year -old for children, said Huhkne. In one last afternoon, he achieved essays and poems submitted by school children who were presented in an Open MIC night in the Duncan Hall in June.

“We wanted to involve the youth so that when they grow up and we prepare for celebrating the city's 250th anniversary, remembering when they were involved,” said Huhnke.

The Historical Association has created 10 hiking exhibition panels, each telling its own story about the history of the city. They made their way to schools to include young people in the community.

“We received a great feedback on how we wrote and we put things in the exhibition,” said Eagle. “You know that history is fun. This is what we want to do.

“Two hundred years have been a long time for a community in this part of the country, and so much has happened in 200 years,” said Eagle. “There is so much that we can learn from because I really believe that the past informs the present.”

The organization of Eagle produces a book that expands its hiking exhibitions to tell 200 stories from the past 200 years that were temporarily set for the publication on September 1st. Community members are included in cooperation with the Historical Association. The director believes that Lafayette has been characterized by the special care of the citizens for their community since its foundation.

“I lived in other communities, even in Indiana,” said Eagle, originally from Alabama,: “Where it is not so much for the history, for its neighbors for history.”

Community members have been involved in local problems over the years and remained good administrators in their region, she said.

100 years ago, this was shown in Community announcements that were printed in the Journal & Courier to raise the residents of lifting their lawns for the Centennial celebration.

“They take care of the landscape and the buildings and make them look inviting for everyone,” she said. “You can't find that everywhere. And I think that makes Lafayette something special.”

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