Good evening.

I'm Bruce Haines.

The year was 1823 and the place was Washington Hall, a log building located at Barr and Columbia Streets.

The group meeting inside that Fort Wayne Tavern had gathered to file organizing paperwork to the state of Indiana for consideration and before year's end to the Indiana General Assembly, would pass legislation designating a 660 square mile area of northeast Indiana to be the state's newest county.

The legislation would take effect April 1st of 1824 and on that day, Allen County was born.

With the passage of time, which happens way too often even, and way too quickly to even over those two centuries, Allen County is now approaching a major historical moment, its 200th anniversary.

And we're going to learn more about the event planning and process for Allen County's bicentennial.

On this week's prime time and with us today, our guests from the Allen County Bicentennial Board.

With us first is Erin Okeson.

She is digital content manager with Visit Fort Wayne and Tom Harris, who is a member of the Allen County Council and is also board chair of the Bicentennial Experience.

And there they are.

To my right, your left, Erin.

And Tom, thank you very much for being here.

We appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thanks for having us.

Yes.

Any moment now.

Any moment now.

The ribbons come off and the balloons float.

Well, we'll see you have it.

We'll get to the balloons and the ribbons.

Well, let's go back to the future first and ask who is the Allen?

If there is a person the Allen in Allen County.

Let's get that established right off.

Sure.

Colonel John Allen is who our county has been named after, and he was both a state senator and for the state of Kentucky and also fought in the 1812.

He was killed in the 1812 war.

And the leaders of the community at that time selected him to be.

Allen County is the name for our county at that time.

And which is one of the interesting things is, is that there's a county in Ohio and Kentucky and Indiana all named Allen for his commitment to the country at that time.

Wow.

And as that honor came through, it was also somewhat notable for the geography with which the county would find itself, because northern Indiana was pretty much open territory in in the early 1820s.

We could see a map here that lots of activity to the south, which makes sense, I guess, around the Ohio River, Knox County being the first to to find its way.

But way up there in the not quite far northeast corner.

There we go.

You see Allen County in the square and then territory for I believe it's the the Potawatomi and the Kickapoo Indian Territory.

And then not long after that, some additional territory would would move and be reorganized as well.

But in the chronology of it, we were trying to recall to where Allen County fit.

You had the Indiana bicentennial, you had the Fort Wayne Bicentennial, and now you have the Allen County bicentennial.

And it seems that of the three, Fort Wayne wins, right?

Anthony Wayne comes through first, establishes the fort.

We get the town that's the late 1700s.

Then comes the state.

And within about eight years, I think from the state to the county.

But for this kind of time to pass and for all this distance to to cover, how do you try to celebrate 200 years of history in a nine month chunk?

I know it's a big task, you know, but we are really excited to kind of join with the community for this celebration.

Like you said, we did have the city of Fort Wayne bicentennial, the Indiana State bicentennial, but now it is time to celebrate the county.

And so we're really looking forward to a year or the next nine or so months of just great festivities in Fort Wayne and Allen County and our surrounding communities.

And I saw, Tom, what appears to be a wonderful theme, if it isn't the official theme, it should be Remember our past, celebrate our present and imagine our future.

Absolutely.

And then the team came up with that.

That was something, Bruce, that we discussed a lot as the chair and also the members that we discussed a lot.

How can we best encompass all of the different history and the rich history of Allen County?

And that was a way to do it, recognized the past and celebrate the present and imagine our future and the county.

The county is in a growth mode.

We've got a lot of amazing things happening and we don't want to miss any one of those pieces as we celebrate this history.

Well, and I like the direction that the celebration takes to engage people within the county right there on the website, you'll see an opportunity for partner application, I believe it's called.

And there we can see it down there toward the bottom and opportunity to file a partnership application.

What's involved in in that and what do we seek to to accomplish through it.

Well, you know, throughout this year we are, you know, planning and hosting and inviting the community to a lot of the great events that we're putting on.

But also we have so many great events already happening throughout Allen County.

So the Three Rivers Festival, you know, the Bloom Fest in Grable in Leo.

So we're asking those great events that already exist to incorporate the bicentennial into their events.

This year.

So whether that's making it the theme like the Three Rivers Festival, they're going to make the bicentennial, the parade theme, which is going to be a lot of fun, I think.

But, you know, everybody's kind of getting creative.

Even Country Heritage Winery, they're making a special bicentennial wine, which I'm sure is going to be amazing.

So lots of different creative ways for different businesses, events to get involved.

And so we'd love for people to go to AllenCounty200.com and enter, you know, fill out the information, maybe brainstorm with your team of ways that you can incorporate the bicentennial theme into your event.

And we'd love to partner with you and help celebrate your events.

And that that offer, which is kind of a mutual back scratching thing because this is additional exposure, this is additional promotion for that particular event as a where indeed the whole will be greater than one.

Is it the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

And it looks like there will be a lot of parts that will add up to this, this, this wonderful opportunity.

And Allen County being one of the largest counties in the state of Indiana, of course.

But all the different communities that are within the county.

And we've talked to those community leaders and it has earned mentioned.

Many of those have adopted the theme for the bicentennial, for their local community events that that'll happen throughout the year.

So there are summer festivals ...a lot of excitement.

One of the things that we discussed as the team is we want to make sure that we set this up, that each community can recognize this bicentennial as they choose to and not necessarily a central theme, but a decentralized that each community can choose to do that as well as they would like.

Yeah, and this is a photo, an image that we sometimes wish we maybe had closer to us because of the interrelationship between the townships and and the larger county.

But a lot of symmetry going on there.

But this is, as you said, it is the largest county by geography in Indiana and I think third largest by population.

Yes.

And 20 townships.

And so township government was a way that a lot of those needs are met in those communities back in those days.

So as you can see, there's quite a few townships and we've tried to reach out to the township trustees and to make sure that they're involved as much as they'd like to be.

And we're doing some things and we'll speak to that in a little bit, but trying to make sure that they've got an opportunity to participate in any way they like.

Yeah.

Tell me about the work of the board, how the committee team got got together, because this is one where you don't want to leave anyone out and you think we're going to put another leaf in whatever meeting table we decide to meet around right, Exactly.

And as we just talked about the townships, Sarah Gnagy is the township trustee president this year overseeing all the different townships.

So she's on the board to make sure that we have that connection.

Irene Walters, a member of a community leader that has been involved in so many different events, we're excited to have her on board as well.

Brenda Gerber Vincent from VFW is on board from the Jeff perspective.

Todd Pelfrey is our executive director of the History Center and Alan County, and he is on board to help us with that history.

And if anyone knows that he's our guy to be able to help us with that.

And Curt Witcher from the library is helping us as well.

And David Jones is a financial consultant, helping us with the funding and the moneys that come through this process.

Phil GiaQuinta is from the state perspective, is on board.

Pone from New Haven.

She's one of the leaders in the New Haven administration, is on board.

And we mentioned both Erin, Kate Dippold is had been working with the commissioner's office and she has working with us as well as well as Emily Almodovar is with us as well.

And she has they have been just a tremendous amount of help for this process and this program.

And we're excited to have her all these members.

And it's been a great, great.

Probably about six or nine months, I think we've been together.

And the idea is just keep coming and we're trying to figure out how many, how many events, how many different things can we do, and how can we meet the needs of a county this size and the diverse communities within that county?

So one of the dynamics of it, I recall early a little earlier on it was giving something around which everyone can rally.

And of course nothing says we're doing something like a good logo.

And boy, did you come up with a great logo.

The unveiling was in October or so of 23 and there it is on the screen.

And describe what we're seeing.

Yeah.

So we were really excited with the way we ended up with our final logo here.

And you can see, you know, from the colors and the look, it really ties into our rivers that flow through every part of Allen County.

So you have that with the teal and the colors.

Of course, you can see the courthouse there.

There's kind of a nod to our farmlands there.

There's even kind of the turtles in there that, you know, are in reference to the Miami tribe that was here, so worked with so many different people to make sure that everything that was reflected in the logo was historically accurate.

And we're just really excited to see the community embrace this.

We were excited to have the Miami tribe.

We worked with them to receive that permission to add the turtle on their piece to that logo, and that's turned out really well.

So we're excited about that.

Yeah, that's terrific.

Now something I was not aware of, I did not know that Allen County does not have an official flag, which sounds like another one of those.

Find a need and fill it sort of moments.

Yes.

I did not know that before this process either, that we didn't have an official flag.

So we thought the bicentennial is probably the perfect time to create the first official Allen County flag.

So we are just wrapping up today our Allen County flag design contest.

And so we've been running this for the last couple of months and we've been asking the community to submit their designs.

So we are getting submissions from elementary school students that are doing it with their classes and they're sending in some amazing designs.

You know, graphic designers are sending in their digital creations.

It's really amazing the creativity of those in our community.

And so we are really excited.

Now the next step is to choose what which design is going to be the winning one.

And so we're going to look through those.

We're going to have the community weigh in a little bit.

And then on June 14th, Flag Day, we are going to unveil and celebrate the first official Allen County flag.

That is really something.

And it's one where I'm sure folks will be able to see.

I can see myself, you know, in in this one, it's finally all together.

And the chance to get up close and personal with those that are contending to be locations, I guess, where folks can see this and and perhaps online as well.

Yes.

Yes.

So on our website at Allen County 200, as well as if you follow us on Facebook or Instagram.

So there will be ways for the community to weigh in to choose their favorites.

And we're just really looking forward to the final result and we can't wait to share it.

Wow.

Now, of course, even as we are joining you all tonight and filling in some gaps here about what is coming up quickly on the calendar that kick off is coming on April one.

What are what can we expect?

And it's not an April Fool's joke.

It actually lands on April 1st and we're excited about it.

And this will take place at the Reserve Center, which is the Old City County building downtown on Main Street.

And we have Suzanne Crouch, the lieutenant governor of the state of Indiana, will be there that day and there'll be other speakers.

But it's an opportunity to just kind of stop, reflect a little bit and make sure the community knows this is the official day.

And as and we'll be doing that inside.

There was a discussion about possibly doing that outside.

Bruce And then it's in April in Indiana.

So we've decided to play it safe and we'll have this inside at this point.

But Cookie Cottage will be making cookies that will have the logo on it, and that'll be an exciting time and it'll be an opportunity to kind of raise awareness of all the different events that will be coming at us throughout the year.

And some of our sponsors will be out there and announced at that time and we're just excited to kind of kick it off.

Now, the challenge that we have April 1st a lot of times and in the beginning of April happens to be the week that a lot of people are beginning to take a spring break.

So we've decided in the board was challenged a little bit.

Do we have the events begin that week?

But unfortunately, a lot of people were going to spring break that week.

So what we've decided is that we'd move that event back to April 20th and begin to celebrate in the community on the April 20th time frame for the fall celebration.

So we'll have a short event on April 1st, kind of kick it off and then more fun to come beginning April 20th.

And it's on the screen right now.

A veritable block party taking place on Saturday.

And this is one where never to think necessarily of the courthouse as an open house.

But what a wonderful opportunity as a part of the event to take a look at something that truly celebrates the county and so much great art and architecture at the same time.

Oh, my goodness.

Yes, there are so many great activities happening during our bicentennial block party on April 20th.

But yes, those courthouse tours are definitely a highlight.

So don't miss that.

From noon to three, the full event goes from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

But if you'd like to enjoy a courthouse tour, that's going to be noon to three.

Do not miss this opportunity.

It's so beautiful inside.

You can kind of see there just the architecture, the artwork.

It's just amazing.

And so you don't always have the opportunity to go in and see it the way that you'll be able to and take these tours during the block party event.

So lots of activities going on outside the courthouse as well.

So plenty to do that day.

We're also really excited to partner with Fort4Fitness and they're going to be doing their historic hustle that day.

So it's going to be a walk run event that's part of the block party, but it's also really going to take you to some historical landmarks around downtown.

So we're really excited to kind of see what they come up with for that and just a really fun and creative way for people to explore the history of our county for being able to take this experience over three fourths of the year is one that allows it to be interpreted in different ways.

Fort for fitness, the courthouse tours, as you were mentioning, the Three Rivers Festival.

I'm wondering if there are some others, even at this early phase that you're thinking There will be locations, I guess where the chance to get connected with all things Allen or something to that effect Absolutely, Also I wanted to mention the History Center will be open on that Saturday, the 20th, so that citizens and folks visiting can go in and see the different aspects of history and Allen County in the Fort Wayne area.

So that'll be happening.

But yeah, there's a there's a quite a few events and it'll be an exciting time for this community beginning on the 20th as well.

And certainly with the History Center too, a chance to see that renovation recently completed to allow for greater accessibility and engagement with, with things going on down there.

Todd Maxwell, Pelfrey and staff doing tremendous work.

The chance to get connected with all things Allen is certainly one that may take all nine months to pull together.

I was going back in time a little bit to the state's bicentennial and at that time there were opportunities for some community projects, maybe a pay it forward sort of moment.

Maybe this is still on the white board to be to be thought through.

But the townships or other neighborhoods may take things out.

Have you heard of anything along the lines of we're going to, in the name of this bicentennial, establish a, you know, free library or or something to that effect?

Remember, of those things that are being discussed with the board.

And it's exciting to understand all the community partnerships as well as some of the sponsors that are that are active.

And Bruce, one of the things that we're excited about as well is the one of the legacy projects are sculptures that were actually working will have 14 that the community might remember.

Mastodons on Parade.

We've created a sculpture that will be located in about 14 different locations in Allen County that will be basically and I'll try to describe this and help me out if I get this off, but it's basically an eye for Indiana, so it'll be Indiana, but on each one you'll be able to take a selfie, but you'll have a highlighted sculpture and in focus on a particular community.

So if this was in Greybull as an example, they'll be able to have an artist will paint a picture and talk about a little bit of the history in that community and it will be highlighted within their own community.

On this sculpture.

You'll be able to take a picture with that and we'll have about 14 of these located at the airport and various places throughout the community.

And it'll be it'll mention both the sponsors as well as the bicentennial event will be listed on it and recognizing the contributions and the history of each of these different communities will be on this sculpture.

So it'll be a beautiful time to be able to reflect and have these located throughout the communities.

And that's a way to kind of bring everybody together as well.

Wow.

I can see where that that carries the spirit forward of a lot of these which have brought people out and someone to do the tour of all 14 for the like.

Absolutely.

Yes.

Yeah.

And I think that's kind of the beauty, too, of some of these design projects that we're doing to the flag design and the new sculptures.

It's going to be really neat.

But they're also really special ways to kind of remember our past, which is one of the big parts of the bicentennial, is remember our past as we imagine our future.

And so inviting the community in to show their how they see our our county and, you know, reflecting that through art, I think it's going to be a really special way.

So these 14 different designs on these different sculptures, it's going to be beautiful with different unveilings in the different counties.

So we're excited.

Wow.

Being able to carry this through a variety of of social media and of course, traditional media too, drawing on the assets of agencie to talk about how the ripple effect of this idea is able to get out to the four Corners and beyond about this nine month celebration, what we're kind of calling have you needed to make and and who has answered who has helped come to say we'll grab an orange road, this boat?

Well, I think that's kind of the great part about this bicentennial is that it is kind of by the entire county because we need everybody involved.

And it's for everybody.

So it really takes everybody.

So we've been working with the different townships and municipalities, and it's been great to see the engagement with some of these projects, like the sculptures.

Everybody's getting involved and excited.

Lots of great community agencies and entities who can help us spread the word and we're just excited to welcome the community in as part of this.

One of those pieces that we're working on.

Bruce said that we're not totally there yet.

We're still finalizing some of those details.

Is a program called 200 Acts of Kindness.

And so we're in the process of putting that together.

We've got some folks that are involved in that as well as I think Parkview Hospital has indicated they'd like to participate in that.

But it's a way for citizens, it's a way for communities and organizations, businesses to be able to get involved and say, let's figure out a way from this year, in the nine months, what can we do to create 200 acts of kindness so even individuals can identify that?

And we're working on some of the details there that they might be able to submit that.

And then at the end of the year, we'll talk about it a little bit, be just recognized in some way that they participated in 200 acts of kindness then in the Allen County area.

So let's focus on how this all then wraps up by by year's end, because our show is also close to wrapping up by hours.

And so tell me a little bit about the close of it all.

Yeah, we're planning an event on November 16th and it will be a Saturday at the Coliseum, Allen County Coliseum and War Memorial Coliseum.

And that event will be the bicentennial bash and we're calling it the Bicentennial Bash.

And we plan to have there'll be seating for approximately 900 people and we'll have an opportunity to kind of share all the different events and recognize some of the different contributors, sponsors, participants throughout the year and some of the neat things that have occurred in this bicentennial year for the county.

Wow.

Yeah, I know.

Again, the theory of relativity, nine months will fly by like 9 minutes and a chance for you to get integrated into all that's upcoming.

There is the seal.

You'll want to head over to the website as well AllenCounty200.com.

There it is.

And again, take a look at that partnership opportunity at your club group neighborhood nonprofit could well be one of those 200 acts of kindness and the website is open for submissions and any time apparently yes So we wish you all the best with what's coming along and look forward to getting in step with again, a way to remember the past, celebrate the present, and that imagining the future is the tie that binds.

So best wishes to the board for its steering help and making this work.

And we're looking forward to it.

Yes, Thank you for having us.

I hope you are as well.

Tom Harris and Erin Okeson from the Allen County Bicentennial Board.

I'm Bruce Haines.

And for all of us with prime time, thank you for watching.

Take care.

We'll see you again next week.

Good night