I waited to see Thursday’s Chronicle to see if I had missed something. But no, it really seems true that The Chronicle didn’t have any coverage of the bicentennial event for our founder George Washington.
Saturday’s event capped over a year of the ad-hoc George Washington Committee’s website, posters, a special postal stamp, broadcastings, events in Centralia and even Tacoma, lessons in local schools, coloring book and coloring contests, T-shirts, scholarships in George Washington’s name, rededication of Washington Hall at Centralia College, talks at Rotary, a church service in George Washington Park, Heather Baird’s talks at AAUW, library programs reading literature pertaining to George Washington’s racial experience, a fun run around George Washington’s homestead, a newly opened permanent museum downtown, cleaning up of Washington Lawn Cemetery, a city proclamation, parade entries and many things I’m forgetting or overlooking.
Brian Mittge and Kerry Serl had the inaugural signing at the Saturday event of their well researched and written book, “George Washington of Centralia,” the first about our founder George Washington, for goodness sake.
And the grand event on Saturday was the unveiling of the bronze full-size statue of the Washington couple and Rockford, the dog. Yes, there have been many articles in The Chronicle along the way about the statue. But, for the exciting unveiling, where a gospel choir sang George Washington’s favorite hymn, Jim Stafford, the sculptor, offered a talk on the creation of the statue, where the mayor and ex-mayor had worked so hard to bring the statue to fruition, nothing.
Someone even arranged for an overhead photo of the unveiling showing the proud Centralia citizens, and others who thought the occasion noteworthy and came that day. I had visions of that photo taking up the entire front page of The Chronicle. You can see that photo on Facebook.
All in all, it doesn’t matter what made The Chronicle. For me, it was all joy, and I’m proud of Centralia and its founder. I look forward to the fruition in future years of the commemoration events of George Washington’s bicentennial anniversary.
Carrie Aadland
Centralia
