Topics this month:
Executive Director’s Column: - A Jazz Beginning !
Have you voted ?
Medallion Auction
Your Donation Matters
Legacy Grant News
What’s cooking at the Sesquicentennial?

Executive Director’s Column:
A Jazz Beginning to a Jazzed Up Year Ahead

Minnesota’s 150th anniversary year is just around the corner. In January 2008, we begin with a jazz flourish to commemorate 150 years of statehood. The Roseville Winter Jazz Blast, the first official event of many hundreds of Sesquicentennial-related events to come across the state in 2008, begins at Northwestern College on January 12 in St. Paul, organized by our good partners, the Roseville Visitors Association. It is SOLD OUT! If you want to get on the waiting list, go to http://www.visitroseville.com and click on the Jazz Blast link.

School jazz bands from across Minnesota are assembling at the Winter Jazz Blast to perform and share in jazz clinics by professional jazz musicians and educators. One of several official Minnesota State Birthday Songs to be heard in 2008– this one in Jazz Style – will be premiered, written by Dean Sorenson, Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Minnesota. The event also features Jazz MN Big Band and vocalist Judi Donaghy performance at 7 p.m.

The Jazz Blast is the first of many events, programs and projects blowing across our Minnesota landscape for the Sesquicentennial Year. Are you ready for 2008?  Have you cleared your schedule May 11-18? You don’t want to miss the big Statehood Week with Wagon Train arrival and birthday cake on May 11, Honorary Capitals for a Day around Minnesota May 12-16, and the special Minnesota homecoming on our collective front yard – the Capitol Grounds on May 17 & 18 -- when we assemble Minnesota People, Places & Progress and Honor Those Who Serve for the Statehood Weekend Festival & Expo.

(On July 10, 1958, Minnesota farmer Delmar Hagen left Pembina, North Dakota, with an ox and a two-wheeled wooden cart. Forty-five days and 400 miles later he arrived in St. Paul, Minnesota, to help kick off the state fair and centennial exposition. Orlin Ostby was 17 years old in 1958 and worked for Delmar Hagen. Catch the story on Minnesota Public Radio at http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/07/05/pembinaoxcarttrail

Get in the Sesquicentennial Spirit like Orlin Ostby has…..Have you voted for Capitals for a Day? Go to www.mn150years.org to vote for Capital for a Day --- 68 communities were nominated!

And get great Sesqui gear and commemoratives – just in time for the holidays at www.mn150years.org/merch.html.  Your purchases will help fund Sesquicentennial projects and programs and so too will your donations, so please give generously at http://www.mn150years.org/donation.html.

Do you want to lend your ideas, hopes and dreams for Minnesota’s future?  Participate in the Sesquicentennial Plan for Our Future locally or at the online survey – find a meeting or participate online at http://www.mn150years.org/future.html.

Help us gather recipes for the Sesquicentennial cookbook and send yours to cookbook@mn150years.org.

Have you registered your events and programs and projects with us so you can be on the Official Events & Program Listing that will come out in January? Add your activity by registering here: http://www.mn150years.org/eventform.html

There are many ways to join in as we welcome a year of commemoration and coming together as Minnesotans!

--Jane Leonard, Executive Director.

Have you voted? Vote today!

The nominations are in and Minnesota is one step closer to naming five honorary state capital communities for its sesquicentennial year. The Minnesota Sesquicentennial Commission had a deluge of responses when they asked which Minnesota communities ought to be an honorary capital for a day. Now citizens across Minnesota are being encouraged to vote online at www.mn150years.org with polls closing November 26th and the designation of "honorary state capital" up for grabs until then.

Nominees cover all parts of Minnesota, from large suburban communities to the smallest of smallest town in Minnesota (Tenney, population 6). A total of 68 communities are in the running (http://www.mn150years.org/capital4aday2.html). The Sesquicentennial Commission plans to recognize each nominee during the sesquicentennial year, but in the end, only five will earn the designation "honorary capital for a day."

The five honorary capitals will be selected through a vote on the Sesquicentennial Commission's website (http://www.mn150years.org). Anyone can vote for one potential capital for each of the five regions designated by natural areas or biomes in Minnesota. Each biome will have its own honorary capital chosen through its own online poll, hence the five honorary capitals for a day.

The 150--word nomination essays are posted at the polling site for voters to read and use to decide which communities to support in their bid for "capital for a day." The election concludes November 26th. After the votes are tallied, the Sesquicentennial Commission will announce the five winners, one in each region.

The Capital for a Day program was launched October 19th in part to raise awareness of the unique landscapes found across Minnesota. The convergence of four distinct biomes the unglaciated driftless in the southeast corner of the state, and the nationally-significant lake and river watersheds here make Minnesota's environmental landscape exceptional in the entire North American Continent. 

The Sesquicentennial office received over 100 nominations for the 68 communities nominated. In the Coniferous Forest of northeastern Minnesota, 12 communities were nominated; 23 in the Deciduous Forest running diagonally SE to NW across the state, 22 for the Prairie Grassland on the western border, three for the Tallgrass Aspen Parklands area of Northwestern Minnesota, and eight for the Driftless area of Southeastern Minnesota.

During the Statehood Week - May 11th -May 18th 2008-the five communities will have a designated day as honorary capital.  Each community can personalize their commemoration of the state's 150th birthday with local flavor.
    
At each honorary Capital for a Day, the Sesquicentennial Commission plans to help organize a recognition ceremony, including the presentation of an honorary capital designation sign, a visit by state dignitaries and a community civic engagement roundtable on the results of the Sesquicentennial Plan For Our Future meetings happening now across Minnesota and the subsequent Plan for Our Future report to be completed by May.
Throughout 2008 there will be activities across the state highlighting the assets of the natural areas and biomes that the honorary capital for a day nominees and winners represent.

For more information on the Sesquicentennial Capital for a Dayprogram or to vote visit the Minnesota Sesquicentennial website at www.mn150years.org. For more information on Minnesota biomes and geological areas visit the Department of Natural Resources website at http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/ecs/index.html.

The Minnesota Sesquicentennial Commission put three unique medallions up for auction on their website this week. Cast in silver, the first-strikes of the three official Sesquicentennial medallions are one-of-a-kind collectors items. Each comes complete with a certificate of authenticity and a keep-sake wooden box.

The medallions all feature the official state sesquicentennial logo on one side. The reverse of each medallion is featured in the photo attached.

1. The official Minnesota quarter-dollar design.
2. The Minnesota Historical Society's MN150 exhibit logo.
3. The Great Seal of the State of Minnesota.

The online auction closes at 12 midnight on December 17. Visit the Sesquicentennial Commission's website, www.mn150years.org to see the medallions and place a bid.

Another 150 silver medallions (75 of the "Great Seal" and 75 of the "Minnesota Quarter") will be on sale at the Commission's website for $150 a piece. These medallions will be numbered from 1858 (the first year of Minnesota's statehood) through 2008.

"We're imagining individuals might want to get the medallion with their birthday or wedding anniversary year on it," explained the Sesquicentennial's executive director Jane Leonard, "or other significant dates in their family history."

All the medallion designs are available in bronze for $5 a piece at the Sesquicentennial's website, http://www.mn150years.org.

The medallions were created by Wendell's Inc. The 125 year-old Minnesota company will be working with the Sesquicentennial and its partners throughout 2008 on these and other medallions for the state's sesquicentennial. If you are interested in creating a customized Sesquicentennial medallion for your community, organization, or business, please visit the Sesquicentennial medallion site at http://www.wendellsinc.com/mn150/index.html.

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the sesquicentennial medallions goes to the Sesquicentennial Commission's work creating and supporting commemorative events across the state in 2008. "This is a great way to support the state's 150th commemoration activities and get a permanent keepsake from this once-in-a-lifetime event that you'll have for your family to share with future generations," said Leonard.

For more information and to see more views of the medallions, visit www.mn150years.org.

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