We are only a short seven months away from a fantastic and huge event celebrating Capitol Heights Centennial Homecoming Celebration! One hundred years ago Capitol Heights was incorporated as a city of Alabama! Today Historic Capitol Heights is still “Montgomery’s most beautiful suburb” and the “worthwhile proposition” our founders hoped Capitol Heights to be! So, we are going to show off!

          You’ve read in previous issues of this newsletter that Co-Chairpersons Cindy Thornhill, Cindy Keeping, and Cynthia McCollister (the 3Cs) were working hard on plans for this celebration. Now, we have a plan and it is time to begin its execution! Inside this newsletter is a lengthy needs list and the first thing to be done is to pick your pleasure! There is opportunity for every household to participate! There is opportunity for all skills and talent to participate! Before you dive into the needs list, here is a review of the activities planned for the day (those indicated with a $ are fund raising activities for CHCA).

Parade of the Decades: Kicking off our event will be a neighborhood parade! Parade participants are invited to select a decade and dress accordingly! (A nickel to the first person that guesses the decade Cindy Thornhill will pick!) We plan to include vintage autos, a marching band, a choir group, a Trolley, the Horse and Carriage, and YOU!

Vintage auto show: Owners of vintage antique automobiles will display their vehicles in the median of South Capitol Parkway. We’ve room for about 60 autos! $

Old fashioned games: Games for young and old will be held at Armstrong Park. Games planned are croquet, a bean bag toss, clothes pins in a bottle, and checkers!

Arts and Crafts: Local artists, with preference given to Capitol Heights residents, will display and sell their wares at Vickers Park. $

Spotlight on History – Self-Guided Walking/Driving Tour (of churches and exterior of homes): All churches in Capitol Heights will be invited to open their doors for tours. Homes within the neighborhood of special interest – historic significance, interesting architecture or with an interesting folklore – will be identified. Walk or drive to theses homes or take a ride on the trolley. Homeowners are invited to submit items to be included in the tour. A brochure or booklet will be made available for purchase that documents the homes and churches. $

Heritage and History: Interviews of current and former residents of Capitol Heights will be displayed. Hear how it was living in our neighborhood! Learn the reasons families choose to live in Capitol Heights.

Entertainment: Entertainment will be scheduled throughout the day and held at Armstrong Park.

Trolley Rides: Two trolleys have been reserved for the day. One will provide transportation from designated parking areas to Armstrong Park. The other will be available as a tour trolley and will carry our guests to see some of the homes discussed at Spotlight on History. $ – tour trolley only

Horse and Carriage Rides: There will be relaxing and nostalgic rides through the neighborhood in horse drawn carriages! This has been very successful and popular (when it is not raining) at our Candlelight Tour. $

Food, Refreshments, Snack Vending: A caterer will be selected to serve meals to our guests at a local church. Snacks and refreshments will be available for purchase at Armstrong Park, Vickers Park, and S. Capitol Parkway median. $

Cookbook: A cookbook of recipes from Capitol Heights current and former residents will be published and available for sale at the Centennial Homecoming Celebration. We need your recipes! Information for submitting recipes is available on our website or you can call Cynthia at 264-0800. $

Merchandise Sales: Merchandise sporting the Capitol Heights Logo will be for sale at the Arts and Crafts venue. $ Traffic and Safety: Given all of the activities being held in the neighborhood and all the visitors we hope to attract, traffic and safety will be of concern. This team will be tasked with identifying areas of concern and making recommendations to address those concerns.

Calling Tree: The calling tree is already an active team and will be used to solicit volunteers for each of these activities.

Grounds Prep: This committee will be responsible for set up. Grounds prep will also be assigned cleanup and tear down responsibility.

Ambassadors: Ambassadors (you!) will be available to greet and assist our visitors with directions or questions. Ambassadors need to be stationed at the three main areas and at each event. Approximately 34 Ambassadors will be needed at any point in time during the day of the event

          YES!  There are plenty of opportunities to participate and many varieties of talents needed!
          Detailed elsewhere on the website is the Needs List for our Celebration. As you review this list, please keep in mind our thinking as we prepared the list. Some needs we are certain will be able to be met by our neighborhood with no expense. Even so, we took the position it was prudent to include the expense all the same. As we expand our circle of volunteers to help with this effort, we realize some needs may be able to met with less expense than included on the list. We are all for that! Even so, we felt it prudent to estimate high rather than have to return to ask for more money if our hopes weren’t realized! CHCA treasury does not have sufficient funds to sponsor this event. Even so, we are confident with our neighborhood’s participation – the cash to fund this event will be available through donations and both personal and business sponsorships (plus a couple of BONDS grants).
          Success of this event is HIGHLY dependent upon neighborhood contributions (both time and financial), business and personal sponsor contributions, general donations, earning our BONDS grant, and a lot of hard work. The remaining seven months until the event will just fly by… so we need to get started NOW! If you would like to volunteer anything on our needs list please contact the 3Cs as indicated below. Should you see something the 3Cs may have missed including on the needs list, please let us know!

           We need to hear from all of our volunteers by Tuesday, March 11th. Call Cynthia McCollister at 264-0800 or email Cynthia.mccollister ( at ) charter.net.

HOPE TO HEAR FROM EVERYONE!! — The 3Cs