Gilbert, Iowa  —  125th Anniversary in 2004
 

Report of the First Meeting of the Gilbert 125 Group

7 p.m. Thursday, March 6, at the Gilbert City Hall on Main Street

Ten Gilbert residents and other community loyalists met on March 6 at city hall to explore the possibilities for celebrating Gilbert's 125th anniversary in 2004. We told each other about our connections to the town, described our visions for the event, brain-stormed a list of activities, discussed organizational strategy, and began the process of selecting a date for the event.

We are tentatively thinking of holding the celebration during the last weekend of July or on one of the first two weekends in August. We also talked about the possibility of holding Gilbert's all-class school reunion the same weekend as the G125 celebration.

We also talked about the value of working closely with the City of Gilbert, perhaps being an ad hoc committee. Representatives of the planning group will meet with the city council in April.

We each agreed to look at our brain-stormed list of activities, pick a few that interested us and talk to a people to gather more ideas and information. We will also recruit more people to participate in planning the event and will report back at our next meeting. It will be at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 25, at city hall.

We invite you to join us. The more people participating in the planning, the lighter the workload will be for each person. After all, we want to have some fun at the celebration and not be stressed out by the event.

Take a look at the brain-storm list below. Let us know if you have additional ideas. Also, any phone calls or other steps you can take to do a little research on your favorite activities would be helpful. Thanks. Hope to see you and some of your friends on the 25th.

Next meeting: 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 25 at the Gilbert City Hall on Main Street

For further information: contact Helen Gunderson, a Gilbert resident and the Gilbert Gazette editor. You may also talk to the other people who attended the first meeting: Mary Dodds, Margo Enness, City Council Member Lynn Henn, Kurt Jensen, Mayor Bob Jaquis, Joy Leister, Gwen Thompson, Cindy Wirth, and Greg Wirth.

In case of inclement weather or emergency: the next planning meeting will be on March 27.