Our story starts on April 19, 1775 with the battle of Concord. And meanders through the centuries until July 23, 2024.
Following the battle of Concord (also known as the Battle of the Old North Bridge), not much was done to commemorate the battle until 1825 when $500 was appropriated as a commission to commemorate it. Danial Chester French, who lived in Concord, wound up with the commission and after numerous and confusing changes the final monument was unveiled in 1875. The statue itself is constructed of bronze (it was originally supposed to be stone but the Federal Government gave the town 10 Civil War Cannons – rumor has it they may have been Confederate cannons – because the town of Concord could not afford to buy the bronze to make the statues casting and the monument was completed.
Fast forward to 1995. Many, many things had changed. for starters and directly related to our story, an organization known as Rotary had started and quickly spread around the world. By 1995 it had grown to encompass 19 “zones,” more than 500 “Districts,” over 30,000 Rotary clubs, and over 1,200.000 Rotarians.
Training for the 30,000 incoming presidents of all these clubs was done at an event known as “PETS (President-Elect Training Seminars)” which our unsuspecting incoming District Governor Bob Cassidy, was helping to organize.
One of the things Bob noticed was how bland all the club and district banners looked. They were all constructed of “Felt” with a dark blue background and yellow lettering. All that is, except for one, which was a brightly colored banner design depicting symbolically what that district stood for, on a white silk background. Bob decided on the spot to turn his district’s boring felt banner into something much more colorful and meaningful like the one he had seen, but he had no idea how to do it.
Returning home he discussed it with his wife Carolyn. She said “Isn’t your district known as the Minuteman district? And isn’t it symbolically represented by that statue in Concord?” That was all true, and there were loads of pictures of the minuteman statue in books and magazines all he had to do was use them, add some text, and he would have his banner. Well, … not so fast;
Another member of our club (Divid Hanum) who was also a graphic artist asked if we had obtained permission to use any of the pictured images. Bob had no clue. That’s when David stepped forward (that’s something Rotarians do a lot of) and said he would design a “ Rotary minuteman banner” for Bob and District 7910 before he had to bail him out of jail!
Dave went to Concord with his camera, took a number of his own photographs, and produced the image, Rotary emblem, and text you see on the District banner today. In addition, we approached the Concord Board of Selectmen for their permission to use the image. (it seems as though back in the mid-1800s there was quite the squabble between Lexington and Concord when the former wanted to use it). They of course unanimously approved the idea. And, at his installation as Governor in 1997 Bob revealed the new banner as his gift to the district.
It was a “smash hit” and for years it was displayed at all district events. Then about four years ago the banner went missing. Bob noticed it was missing. but most folks in the district had no idea where it had come from; for that matter, they didn’t know what he was talking about. For the next few years he persisted, but nobody could find it. everyone thought it must have gotten left behind at one of the NEPETS meetings and was lost forever.
Finally along came a District Governor who took Bob’s concerns seriously and did one final search for it. Between himself and District Governor-Elect Johnny Ahern, Dammed if they didn’t find it! However, it turns out it no longer met Rotary’s “Brand” standards. Governor Elliott took the initiative to send it off to Russell Hampton whose graphic artists brought the lettering and graphics up to current standards and shipped it back to Governor Elliott.
On Tuesday, July 23rd Governor Elliott, and Governor-Elect Johnny brought the original banner back to our club and presented it to PDG Bob. And so our story ends on July 23rd, 2024 with the banner’s long journey now complete.