By Mary Hladky
With Boca Raton about to celebrate its 100th birthday next year, city officials already are planning a year-long series of events in 2025 to commemorate this milestone.
The centennial date is May 26, but since that is Memorial Day, the main celebration will take place on May 24.
Much more is in the works.
The Boca Raton Historical Society is creating a glossy coffee-table book with photos that chart the city’s progress, achievements and changes decade by decade. The society also is creating lesson plans aimed at fourth-graders and will hold a series of lectures.
The city is partnering with O, Miami, an organization that helps local emerging artists create public art, to replicate its efforts in Boca Raton.
One of the projects is dubbed “Zip Odes,” which are five-line poems written by residents with the number of words in each line corresponding to their zip codes. Someone in zip code 33432, for example, would write a poem with three words each in the first and second lines, four words in the third, three again in the fourth line and two words in the last.
O, Miami has placed the poems on rooftops, highway overpasses and even on gas station nozzles.
City officials are meeting with community members to come up with more ideas and expect to hire a marketing consultant by June to get the word out about planned programs and events.
At the April 8 City Council meeting, members urged Anne Marie Connolly, the city’s communications and marketing manager, to develop a robust celebration.
“I want it all. I want more,” said Deputy Mayor Yvette Drucker.
“Think big. Think bold,” said Mayor Scott Singer, who suggested a concert featuring nationally known artists.
Council member Fran Nachlas proposed recording interviews with Holocaust survivors. Council member Marc Wigder suggested celebrating the uniqueness of each of the city’s neigh-borhoods and its quality of life.
Connolly said she would share more of city staff’s plans as soon as possible.
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