PROVINCETOWN – Plans for Provincetown’s celebration commemorating the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrims’ arrival in 2020 are beginning to take shape.
The non-profit Provincetown 400 recently provided an overview to the Board of Selectmen and other officials on the progress being made to celebrate the landing of the Pilgrims, the signing of the Mayflower Compact and sharing the Wampanoag’s story.
Provincetown 400 Executive Director Lisa Giuffre says the message from residents and businesses on what everyone wanted was clear.
“Almost unanimously it was about elevating the visibility of Provincetown and its role in this whole story as being almost paramount,” Giuffre said.
Giuffre says she has attended more than 350 meetings, which ranged from half to full day and even multi-day sessions, with different groups and potential partners for the anniversary celebration.
The organization has developed a strong relationship with Plymouth 400.
“There are several things that we are doing together in addition to their events and our signature events,” Giuffre said.
Giuffre is hopeful that a memorandum of understanding with the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum will be signed this fall to collaborate for the celebration.
“Much of this programing will be done in concert with Pilgrim Monument and additionally they’ll have specific programs that they offer as part of this commemoration,” Giuffre said.
Provincetown 400 has also established a relationship with the General Society of Mayflower Descendants.
“This is a national organization with a lot of moxie and political power in this country,” Giuffre said. “They have a membership of about 90,000 people, which is anticipated to grow quite a bit in the next several years as we approach the 400th commemoration.”
The organizations are in discussions for programs in 2020 and beyond, according to Giuffre.
The group represents anywhere from 10 million descendants in America and up to 20 to 30 million worldwide.
Discussions have also been successful with the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. Provincetown 400 will share the Wampanoag Advisory Group of Plymouth 400.
“That group has been working together and working with Plymouth 400 on their programming and they have been so kind as to advise us,” Giuffre said. “And we’ll also be working with them for specific programming over the next several years and beyond.”
Provincetown 400 also plans to meet with Mayflower 400, an overarching body which organizes all of the 400 organizations in the United Kingdom and Leiden 2020, an organization handling the national commemoration in the Netherlands.
“[We’ll] really start to talk about smart ways of telling the whole international story and how we can entice visitors to all of those locations over the next several years,” Giuffre said.
Programs being considered for the anniversary are designed to honor the scope of Provincetown’s 400 years of history, while also educating the public through events which are both informative and entertaining.
The mission of Provincetown 400 is to improve the quality of life of residents and the visitor experience and to grow the economic and environmental vitality of Provincetown and Cape Cod.
By BRIAN MERCHANT, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
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