The Vero Beach Centennial, 2018-2019 — Vero Beach, Florida

Vero Beach turned its centennial into a full year of events. WQCS reported in March 2019 that the Vero 100 celebration started on October 26, 2018 and would end with a Grand Finale on October 26, 2019, the date the station described as the city's official 100th birthday. City Clerk Tammy Bursick and City Councilman Tony Young served as co-chairs, and the program mixed civic ceremonies, parades, beach bonfires and neighborhood projects across Vero Beach.

The idea predated the year itself. According to Indian River Magazine, which produced a special centennial issue, the celebration began as a casual conversation roughly 16 months earlier between the City Clerk and Councilman Young, who had already worked together on Vero Beach's 75th and 90th anniversary celebrations and wanted the 100th to be bigger. The Indian River Guardian described the year as a set of activities representing the city's history, landmarks, ancestors, organizations, agriculture, education, transportation and the arts.

The opening event was a flag ceremony and time capsule placement at the Driftwood Inn Resort on the Vero Beach oceanfront in late October 2018. Vero News reported that residents dropped off items at City Hall and at Waldo's restaurant, including old cellphones, menus, newspaper articles, military medals and hats, which were sealed in the foundation of a new flagpole. The two-step foundation, a tribute to Waldo's Mountain, the stepped mound built by Waldo Sexton, was decorated with reclaimed tiles, sundial markings and the date May 19, 2119, presented as the city's 200th anniversary.

Officials of the day handled the ceremony. Mayor Harry Howle helped entomb the artifacts, Councilwoman Laura Moss called it the start of the Centennial Year, and Councilman Tony Young, grandson of A.W. Young, elected in 1919 as Vero's first mayor, attended the dedication. At Young's request the flag had flown over the U.S. Capitol on May 19, 2018, which Vero News called the city's 99th anniversary. The same story recorded a cautionary note from City Clerk Bursick: Vero Beach's previous time capsule, buried somewhere near the front of City Hall, had never been located.

By March 2019, WQCS reported, Vero Beach had already held beach bonfires, a Veterans Parade downtown and a Christmas Boat Parade. Next came Airport Heritage Day on March 16, 2019, an open house at the airport with aircraft displays and, weather permitting, aircraft rides. The station's list continued with Family Founders Day on May 26, 2019 and an expanded July 4 celebration before the October finale.

Founders Day had two parts. The Indian River Guardian reported that the Founders Day Centennial Tree Dedication was held at MacWilliam Park at 1:30 p.m. on May 26, 2019, with the City Tree and Beautification Commission recognizing the day Vero was incorporated in 1919, followed by a Family Day Celebration at Riverside Theatre from 2 to 4 p.m. with food trucks, children's games and informational tables from nearly twenty religious organizations.

Trees were the lasting gift. Councilman Young told WQCS that the Tree and Beautification Commission started the centennial effort and planted trees around Vero Beach, with plaques planned so residents would remember when each was set in the ground. Residents added their own projects: a corn maze cut in the shape of the Vero 100 logo, a Vero Beach coloring book, a Centennial Quilt, poster art contests at every school, a play at one high school and a centennial song written and performed at another.

The finale opened with a parade titled Vero Beach Through the Ages. The Indian River Guardian described the plan: participants staged at Vero Beach High School on 16th Street and stepped off at 10 a.m., marching up 14th Avenue through Historic Downtown to a point just past the old Vero Beach Railroad Station, with the main reviewing stand at 14th Avenue and 21st Street. Radio stations WGYL and WTTB served as the official centennial stations, and after the parade the crowd moved into Pocahontas Park for booths, historical displays and music until 6:30 p.m.

The day's coverage in Vero News filled in the details. The City of Vero Beach Recreation Department's 61st annual Halloween Parade went first, and Recreation Director Rob Slezak counted 105 groups in the Centennial Parade that followed, from law enforcement and civic clubs to churches, schools and businesses. Former Indian River County Commissioner Alma Lee Loy, known locally as Vero's First Lady, led the procession as grand marshal, with the Vero Beach High School Marching Band behind her.

The route ended at the restored 1903 depot, where the parking lot held antique and vintage cars and a Wells Fargo stagecoach, and where the Indian River County Historical Society unveiled new timeline exhibits. In September 2019 the Indian River Guardian had reported that the city would present a Centennial Certificate to the Historical Society's railway station on September 20, and that the station would be open from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on finale day. Post-parade crowds also filled the Heritage Center and Citrus Museum, Vero News noted, though rain dampened later outdoor activities.

The celebration closed where it began, on the beach. Vero News reported that on November 2, 2019, a Beachside Bonfire Fest II drew residents to bonfires at five Vero Beach oceanfront locations: Citrus at the southern end, Waldo's (where a faux fire was used because of the historic wooden building), Costa d'Este Resort, Mulligan's Beach House and the Vero Beach Hotel and Spa. Co-chair Bursick said the first bonfire, held in November 2018 at the start of the centennial, had been so successful that organizers repeated it as a wrap-up.

The City of Vero Beach keeps the record online. Its Vero 100 Centennial Celebration Archives page groups the material into history articles, photographs and presentations, and videos. The articles include A Timeline of Vero Beach History 1919 to 2019, Where Did Vero Beach Get Its Name, histories of MacWilliam Park and of airline service at Vero Beach, and pieces on the first high rise developments of 1969. The photo section includes The First 100 Mayors of the City of Vero Beach and a gallery of the Vero 100 Centennial Celebration, and the video list includes a Historical Society program on the Hallstrom House, a Dodgertown video and an IRSC presentation on 100 years of Vero Beach history.

Even the birthday itself is recorded in more than one way. Vero News treated May 19 as the city's anniversary when it reported the flag flown over the Capitol, the Founders Day tree dedication in late May was presented as marking the day the city was incorporated in 1919, and the Guardian described October 26, 2019 as the 100th anniversary of the incorporation of the City. The Vero Beach centennial programs used all three dates, with the October finale as the official close of the year.