including early pio-neer travel, thedevelopment ofroadways, theadvent of the rail-road the completionof I-71 and FreedomField. We sponsoredgames for kids aspart of Main Street’sMedina Fest.

September 2018:Spirits of the Pastpresented some ofthe founding charac-ters from our history.A program on theHistory of the Med-ina City Schools waspresented. Thankyou Gloria Brown.

October 2018: In partner-ship with the Chamber ofCommerce and Miles Reed,the some unique history ofManufacturing and Industryin Medina was presented. Inpartnership with the Commu-nity Design Committee, theRestoration of the Square wascelebrated.

YET TO COME: November2018: Saturday, November 10,2018 - in the Medina Library1:00 p.m. A program titled“World War I, Medina, GeorgeCrile and the Founding of theCleveland Clinic” will be pre-sented by Professor EmeritusJames Banks, PHD.

Sunday, November 11th inthe Public Square Park 10:45a.m. The Bicentennial Com-mittee will host a brief cere-mony recognizing the actualanniversary of the end ofWorld War I. That same morn-ing beginning at 9:00, MainStreet Medina will be decorat-ing the Square for the Candle-light Walk celebration. Thepublic is invited to participatein both activities.

November 15 -17 The 34thMedina Candlelight Walk willinclude programming fromthe Bicentennial Committee.

Friday, November 30, 2018

from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Thefinal birthday party of the 2018Bicentennial Celebration willbegin at the UCCC Churchwith food, fun and history. Theevent will conclude with aone-of-a-kind special activityto be held outdoors in the His-toric District. All are welcomeso please plan to join us as wecelebrate the 200th anniver-sary of Medina’s official birthdate, November 30, 1818.More folks joined the com-

mittee throughout the years,usually for special events.These people all helped out:Skip Baran, Donna Bica, KellyBonacci, Gloria Brown, AmyBusby, Cornell Carter, BarbaraDzur, Ray Fain, Sandra Fain,Linda Fenn, Peggy Folk, JasonGwinnup, Debra Hallock,Donna Hamilton, Bill Hutson,Rebekah Knaggs, Kathy Kraus,Shirley Laribee, Jeremy Levine,Linda Loveless, MarcusNeiman, Dottie Nemec,Michele Nichols, Scott Reid,Jacklyn Ringstmeier, TinaSabol, Bob Thompson andSydney Van Lueeuwen. Thanksso much to everyone.We have run out of copy

space so a look at Medina in2018 will be part of the photobook the committee is pro-ducing that will be availablenext spring. Also next spring,we will be setting a Time Cap-sule in the Bicentennial Com-mons for posterity. Mean-while, please join us for thecelebration’s concludingevents this month. On behalfof the City of Medina Bicen-tennial Celebration Commit-tee, thank you for your sup-port this year. We hope thecommunity has enjoyed ourbicentennial celebration!

By: Roger Smalley

Two Hundred Years…somuch history, so many storiesto tell. How does a commu-nity decide what to celebrateand how to do it? For the Cityof Medina, the effort to answerthose questions began on July7, 2014, during the first meet-ing of Mayor Dennis Hanwell’sCity of Medina BicentennialCelebration Committee.For that first meeting, the

Mayor had drawn the follow-ing people from the commu-nity to participate: Jim Banks,Paul Becks, Tom Borror, DawnConwill, Joann King, BillLamb, Teresa Merkle, EllenNolan, Roger Smalley, LarrySmith, Heather Taylor, PatriciaWalker and Matt Wiederhold.Pat Walker graciously agreedto be the recording secretaryand the committee appointedRoger Smalley as chair.In that first meeting we took

a look back at what was doneto celebrate Medina’s Sesqui-centennial in 1968. Two of ourmembers, Jim Banks and LarrySmith, had been part of thateffort and we had received aSesquicentennial scrapbookfrom former Police ChiefChuck Davis who had chairedthe 1968 celebration. Thefocus back then had been onthematic events celebrateddaily over one week near theend of June. The review helpedus set our focus on first identi-fying what kind of events wewanted to have in 2018.By the end of that first year,

we had brainstormed anextensive list of events. Weknew we would not be able todo all these events but the listprovided a good beginningpoint. Four Subcommitteeswere created to work throughthe details: Events, Publicityand Memorabilia, Educationand History and Budget andFundraising.All the subcommittees suc-

cessfully performed their taskswith enthusiasm andachieved, in this writer’s opin-ion, excellent results.Fundraising proved to be themost difficult. Medina CityCouncil eventually steppedforward and set aside $50,000

of government fundsto cover the celebra-tion’s expenses. Subse-quently, the commit-tee received extensivemonetary and in-kinddonations, large andsmall, from local busi-nesses, industries,partnering organiza-tions and residents.As this article goes

to print, the commit-tee has funded theentire year’s celebra-tion from these dona-tions and has yet tospend a penny of thecity funds council setaside. A huge “Thank

You!” is offered to all our spon-sors and contributors.So, what have we done to

celebrate this once in foreveranniversary?

Events of the 2018 Bicen-tennial Celebration of Med-ina, OhioSince the Medina commu-

nity was established onNovember 30, 1818, the com-mittee chose to celebrate foran entire year beginning dur-ing Candlelight Walk of 2017.The first event included thefollowing:Mayor’s Bicentennial Toast

Friday, November 17, 2017“Tonight as we light our

beautiful historic PublicSquare, may we be remindedof those early pioneers whofirst brought light into the darkforest, who cooked by the lightof fireplaces and learned toread by candlelight. Our his-tory began with them andtheir lives are part of the her-itage we share today. As webegin our Bicentennial Cele-bration tonight, let us honorthose who came before tobuild this community andraise a toast with three oldfashioned “Huzzahs!” to ourcommon heritage. To our her-itage…Huzzah! Huzzah! Huz-zah!”The Candlelight Walk

parade featured an “1818Founders Float” andhistoric charactersin costume.

January 2018: Werecognized our pio-neer heritage withan event where liv-ing history charac-ters such as RufusFerris, Lathrop Sey-mour and AustinBadger are por-trayed by actors. Wecelebrated Medinaas the county seatwith a guided tour ofthe courthouses andthe participation ofall Medina County’sjudges. The MedinaCounty HistoricalSociety displayedartifacts from thepioneer era.

February 2018:

We offered an Under-ground Railroad pro-gram including actorsfrom Hale Farm andpresentations fromlocal homeownerswhose homes werestops on the railroad.Medina’s role in theabolitionist move-ment was presentedat the H. G. Blake Ele-mentary School. Weprovided an event onMedina’s Black historyincluding historicalresidents Lucia Med-ley, Tom King and JoeReno. We supportedthe Diversity Day pro-gram, Black History ThroughMusic.

March 2018:We provided aprogram on Women in Med-ina’s history featuring FredaSnyder, Wilda Bell and LethaE. House who were portrayedby actors. We worked withLinda Loveless and the Med-ina County Home and GardenShow on displays about theCity Bicentennial.

April 2018: Stories of Med-ina’s fires and a history of theFire Department were pre-sented by Asst. Fire Chief MarkCrumley at the Engine HouseMuseum. The Medina CountyHistorical Society presented“Medina in the Civil War: Citi-zens and Soldiers in their OwnWords” at St. Paul’s Church.The Historical Society’s OpenHouse recalled Medina’s rolein the Civil War with tours andartifact displays.Along with the AAUW, we

presented Mystery Women inMedina’s History at MissMolly’s Tea Room.

May 2018:We reserved theUptown Park for Armed Serv-ices Day and invited all thecounty veterans’ groups toparticipate. Thanks to DavidTaylor for all his work. On Sat-urday, May 26th, the Friendsof the Cemetery sponsored aCivil War encampment withreenactors at Spring Grove

Cemetery. The Memorial DayParade emphasized Medina’shistory in the Services. A “200holes for 200 Years” County-Wide Bicentennial Golf Tour-nament began this month.

June 2018: Throughout Juneand July, the Historic MedinaCommunity Band concertseries celebrated the music ofour past with historical read-ings presented during eachconcert. Thank you MarcusNeiman. During Main Street’s Kids

Day of Fun and Safety, weoffered old time games forchildren.

July 2018: HomecomingWeek was celebrated from July3rd through July 11th withdaily events that included:Two band concerts, fireworks,a nearly one hour Bicentennialparade, displays of City vehi-cles by the police, fire, serviceand parks departments, theshowing of a big screen videoof Historic Medina in the Pub-lic Square Park, a family partyat the Memorial Park OutdoorPool, a disc golf tournament, avisit from Wadsworth nativeastronaut Mike Foreman,three days with NASA’s pre-mier traveling display beingopen, assorted games activi-ties, music and entertainmenton the Square, both a hot dogand pie eating contest, a free

jazz concert, a Picnicin the Park with freefood and entertain-ment, Arts Week pro-grams and the annualMedina High School50+ Reunion lunch-eon.On July 21, event

presented by the FairBoard in the UptownPark recalled the firstcounty fairs that wereheld there.

August 2018: At theannual Affair on theSquare, displays andpresentations focusedon Medina becominga city and the com-munity’s growth in50’s & 60’s. A lecturewas presented on thehistory of transporta-tion in Medina

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Medina 1818 - 2018This is the final installment of our twelve-part series documenting the 200 year history of Medina. We appreciate you comingalong with us on this journey and thank you for your interest. The Gazette and the Bicentennial Committee for the City ofMedina have been pleased to bring you this series. Plans are in the works to create one more supplement which will combineall twelve stories into one commemorative issue. Watch your Gazette for details soon. This and all stories in the series can beviewed online anytime at medina-gazette.com/history. We also want to thank all the sponsors at the bottom of the page fortheir support.

Medina 2018: Our Bicentennial Celebration

Saturday, November 10, 2018 in the Medina Library 1:00p.m. A program titled “World War I, Medina, George Crile andthe Founding of the Cleveland Clinic” will be presented byProfessor Emeritus James Banks, PHD. As we celebrate ourbicentennial, it is most appropriate that we recognize the100th anniversary of the end of a World War and its aftermathwhich so impact our modern world.Sunday, November 11th in the Public Square Park 10:45 a.m.The Bicentennial Committee will host a brief ceremonyrecognizing the actual anniversary of the end of World War I.That same morning beginning at 9:00, Main Street Medina willbe decorating the Square for the Candlelight Walk celebration.The public is invited to participate in both activities.November 16 -18 The 34th Medina Candlelight Walk willinclude programming from the Bicentennial Committee.Friday, November 30, 2018 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. The finalbirthday party of the 2018 Bicentennial Celebration will beginat the UCCC Church with food, fun and history. The event willconclude with a one-of-a-kind special activity to be heldoutdoors in the Historic District. All are welcome so pleaseplan to join us as we celebrate the 200th anniversary ofMedina’s official birth date, November 30, 1818.

MedinaBicentennial

Buzz!

B6 Saturday, November 3, 2018 The Gazette

Cyan B6 magenta B6 yellow B6 black B6

Cyan B6 magenta B6 yellow B6 black B6

As our Bicentennial Celebration year draws toward a close, it seems appropriate that a review of thecelebration be set down for the historical record. A more complete insight into how the BicentennialCommittee functioned may be gleaned from the committee’s detailed minutes.

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