|
 A unique souvenir calendar of Lafayette’s Bicentennial Tour is now available at the Suffolk Visitor Center gift shop. This 18-month calendar covers July 2024 through December 2025 and follows Lafayette’s itinerary during his Farewell Tour of the United States two hundred years ago. Each of the date blocks contains the key places he visited that day. There are twenty beautiful period artworks, coinciding with one of Lafayette’s destinations that month. The cost is only $20 and they make great holiday gifts! Lafayette’s stop in Suffolk in February 1825 began his tour of the Southern and Western states. Suffolk will celebrate the bicentennial of his visit in grand style with four events in 2025: - A Lafayette Farewell Tour memorabilia exhibit at the Suffolk Center for the Cultural Arts, January - February - Welcome to Lafayette at the Suffolk Visitor Center on Feb. 23* - Lafayette Banquet at the Hilton Garden Inn Riverfront on Feb. 25* - Reception for Lafayette at the Washington Smith Ordinary in Historic Somerton on Feb. 26.* *Mark Schneider, Colonial Williamsburg’s professional Lafayette interpreter, will be featured. These events are hosted by the American Friends of Lafayette, the Constantia Chapter of Suffolk, Daughters of the American Revolution, and Suffolk 250. Please join us! ****** The Lafayette bicentennial tour calendar is now at the gift shops at Riddick's Folly House Museum and the Suffolk-Nansemond Historical Society. ****** VIRGINIA GAZETTE NEWS WILLIAMSBURG — Businesswoman Carly Fiorina shared her thoughts on leadership and how to best share America’s story for its 250th anniversary at the Greater Williamsburg Chamber of Commerce’s most recent Commonwealth Conversations event. Fiorina, founder and chair of Carly Fiorina Enterprises, as well as the nonprofit organization Unlocking Potential, answered questions from Cliff Fleet, president and CEO of Colonial Williamsburg, during the discussion Wednesday at Williamsburg Lodge. The event was the second in a series the chamber is hosting. Fiorina, chair of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s Board of Trustees, is also national honorary chair of the VA250 Commission, an organization that is heading up the 250th anniversary celebration of the founding of the United States in 2026. She spoke about her personal experience as a female leader as well as what it will take to lead the nation into the future as its milestone birthday approaches. Fiorina spoke candidly about the discrimination she’s faced as a woman throughout her career. She attended law school, but quickly realized it wasn’t the right fit for her. After later teaching in Italy for a year, she worked for a real estate firm. Fiorina eventually earned her Master of Business Administration and went to work first at AT&T before moving on to become chair and CEO of Hewlett-Packard. “I know from personal experience that it is different when you are different,” she said. “We have come a long way, but we have not come as far as we hoped to be today, or as far as we should be.” Leadership, Fiorina pointed out, “is not about the position you hold or about your title. It’s about changing things for the better, solving problems and unlocking the potential in others. … It’s about the results you achieve and working with others to solve a problem or achieve a goal.” Fiorina said leaders need to work to motivate and inspire people, and to collaborate with others to succeed. She added that in order to become stronger leaders, people need to realize that solving problems takes time, that they can’t be passive in their situations and that they have to work with those who aren’t necessarily like them in order to meet the common goal. “You get better answers that way, better results that way,” she said. Fiorina is hoping to use what she’s learned about leadership through the years to help the VA250 Commission honor everyone’s story in the founding of the country. “We are forgetting who we are as a nation, forgetting our history,” she said. “That’s dangerous.” With celebration preparations currently underway for America’s 250th anniversary, the intent of the VA250 Commission will be to share “the whole story, the full story and make it land for people, no matter who they are or where they are,” Fiorina said. Virginia needs to be the leader of the commemoration because “the nation started here. The ideas were born here,” she added. “I hope you don’t take that for granted.” Providing the whole picture of America’s history, the good and the bad, will help Americans “to see ourselves more clearly,” and move forward as a nation, Fiorina said. “We as citizens need to do our part to form a more perfect union,” she said. “For us, that is helping Americans in understanding who we are and where we come from.” The next Commonwealth Conversations event will take place Jan. 10 with BK Fulton of Soulidify Productions as speaker. Brandy Centolanza, [email protected] A Common Cause To All 2024 - Annual Conference
1 Comment
Nina Schumacher
3/26/2024 05:12:18 pm
I appreciate my copy. The artwork is beautiful and the daily details are great information! Leave a Reply. |