350th Anniversary Celebration and Legacy

About the Program

Category: Civic Education and Public Information (Best in Category)

Year: 2015

By all accounts, our “Party of the Centuries” was a great success and will enrich the lives of citizens for years to come! How do you engage and excite a transient and growing community about a 350th Anniversary? You throw a year-long party and invited everyone to it. With Stafford County’s 350th Anniversary celebration approaching in 2014, the Board of Supervisors planned a celebration that the children of today can tell stories about to their grandchildren. They also wanted to build a sense of community which is challenging with a transient and diverse growing populace. They used an innovative partnership with private industry, civic groups and government to plan, create and fund five signature events and tons of historic, artistic and fun programming. They solicited the community’s input for a vision for the 350th Anniversary and appointed a Blue Ribbon Planning Committee of civic and business leaders to make the citizens’ ideas happen. The resulting celebration honoring Stafford’s past, present and future was attended by more than 30,000 people and several of its initiatives became permanent Stafford County resources.