FREDERICKTOWN — A community Valentine dinner-dance and fund-raiser for the village’s bicentennial celebration was held at Fredericktown High School on Saturday night. Circulating among the guests before the dinner were 13 Fredericktown High School students, dressed as living history re-enactors and performing as notable people from the village’s past.
They gave the guests clues as to whom they were portraying, then asked guests to guess their identity. A learn and serve grant through the Knox County Educational Service Center was awarded to the Honors American Literature class for the rental and creation of the period costumes.
Twenty bicentennial bells will be cast by the Foote Bell Foundry in honor of the bicentennial; five were auctioned Saturday, bringing in $3,250. Those purchasing the bells can have information of their choosing cast into the bell. The bells are 9 inches in diameter at the base and weigh 10 pounds. The others will be auctioned throughout the year. A silent auction was also held that raised $525.
Fund-raisers Marsha Rinehart and Mark Blanchard have received $10,430 in pledges from community businesses and industries. A series of events are planned for each month of the bicentennial year.
Commemorative bricks will be placed around the gazebo on the square on March 18, with a soup supper to follow at the Presbyterian Church. A chautauqua program will be held April 27 along with an Arbor Day bicentennial tree planting.
A self-guided tour of historic homes will be May 25-26. A picture booklet of the homes has been compiled and printed by Jim and Becky Wagner. There are 35 locations on the tour, which includes 23 homes on the National Register of Historic Places.
Jim Wagner is a historian and past president of the Fredericktown Historical Society. Other programs will be announced as they approach.
