Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Citizens of the Year: The Royalton Bicentennial Committee




2017 was a special year for our community. The town of Royalton celebrated its 200th birthday. The celebration was huge and it lasted all year.

That party would not have been possible were it not for all the hard work put in by the Royalton Bicentennial Committee. For that, they deserve to be designated as Gasport's "Citizens of the Year."

"THANK YOU" to the committee for helping the community celebrate in style! 



Rebecca Schweigert, Jen Gillings, Julie Maedl, Jennifer and Jesse Bieber, Christa Lutz and Linda Drum


We can't say enough about how awesome these folks were in putting together such an amazing series of events!

Here's their look back at the Bicentennial activities that happened this year -- their report features their "thank you" to the various people and organizations that gave them a hand...


April 8th, 2017: Kick off Dinner at the Niagara Orleans Country Club. Attended by 102 people. Proclamations came from Newfane, Cambria, Wheatfield, Lockport, Hartland, Middleport, NC Leg, US Congress, NYS Governor, NYS Assembly and the NYS Senate. Thanks to Donna Aiken, our logo contest winner who helped make all our merchandise and logos look so amazing!

July 4th, 2017: Veterans and First Responders Breakfast. This was held at Gasport Chemical Hose and we served exactly 200 people for our 200th Birthday of the Town! All Veterans and First Responders ate for free and everyone else was asked to contribute through a free will offering. Thankful for Trinity Lutheran Church of Wolcottsville and the Boy Scouts of Gasport who stepped up and made the day a true success.

July 22, 2017: Royalton Summer Sizzler 200 was held at the Terry’s Corners Fire Company grounds. We had over 3500 people attend with 7 bands, featuring long time Sizzler bands Dirty Blond, Jonsie, Dave Viterna and Last Call. We were also very lucky to have artist Carl Dixon of the Guess Who, Strictly Hip and Nerds Gone Wild! We had a dozen food trucks for lunch and supper, something to satisfy everyone’s taste. Thanks to Tim Durfy and Nick Baes who became an honorary members of our committee and without them this event wouldn’t have happened.

August 27th, 2017: Royalton Community day was held at the Royalton Ravine with a Non-Denominational church service and a craft show. All our Local Fire Companies and the NC Sheriff’s Command Center participated for tours and information on joining. The Lions grilled out hot dogs and sold Chicken BBQ’s. Thanks to Jim Luckman for his help in making it all happen. There was also a basket raffle. Thanks to Pastor Rod for coordinating all the churches and the service.

September 9th, 2017: Royalton Community Picnic was held right down the middle of Main St. in the Village of Middleport. We had a few hundred people come out and have lunch, also with a good will offering accepted. Nickle City reptiles did two shows and had animals set up for a good 3 hours for all of Royalton to see and touch. We also had rides, all free of charge, from 3PM to 8PM. Even the adults took time to go down the slide and take a ride on the swings. In the evening we had food and beverages at the Middleport fire hall with a DJ.

October 21, 2017: Our Closing Ceremony was held at the Terry’s Corners Fire Hall. We had about 100 VERY SURPRISED guests who attended our dinner that ended up being absolutely free, all money for tickets was refunded at the door. We had music along with food by Donna Eick and an enormous give away of local restaurants and businesses gift certificates and merchandise. No one went home empty handed. We had beautiful glass mugs engraved with our Bicentennial Logo made by Quality Engraving for everyone to take home as a keep sake along with small Swiss Army knives.

NONE of these events would have been possible without the generous donations from SO MANY sponsors including Grigg Lewis, Niagara County Legislature, Royalton Historical Society, Drum Oil, Town of Royalton, Village of Middleport, Sunrise Doors, KJ Motorsports, All Metal works, Chops, Sunrise, Basket Factory, Petunias, Brigham Concrete, Standish Jones, Bad Ash BBQ, Darrell’s Place, Middleport Family Health, Village Pizza, Schwabs Markets, Maedl Woodcraft, Gasport Welding, Gasport Lions, Seaway Insurance, Middleport Tractor, Confer Plastics, A Superior Concrete Inc., Brigham Construction, Wolf Maple Products, Howell Motors, Boy Scout Troop 18 and 23, Rapids, Wolcottsville, Gasport, Terry’s Corners and Middleport Fire Companies.