Anna Maria’s 100-year anniversary is just around the corner.
And city officials are ready to celebrate.
Mayor Dan Murphy said April 13 that plans for the city’s Memorial Day and Centennial Celebration were “coming together nicely.”
Anna Maria was the first of the island’s three cities to incorporate— doing so in 1923.
The cities of Holmes Beach and Bradenton Beach were incorporated in 1950 and 1953, respectively.
Murphy said the festivities would begin at 10 a.m. Wednesday, May 31, at City Pier Park, 103 N. Bay Blvd., with the city’s annual Memorial Day Patriotic Symphony Salute.
The Memorial Day program will honor fallen veterans, attending veterans, active service members and their spouses or significant others, with an orchestra performing patriotic music and the theme songs of each branch of the United States military.
Murphy said the program will run for about 45 minutes.
Afterward, the event will morph into a Centennial Celebration, featuring a cake-cutting and music that was popular during the time of the city’s incorporation.
Longtime islander Tom Aposporos will act as master of ceremonies for the event and discuss the city’s creation and its first mayor, Mitch Davis.
Murphy said he also asked the Anna Maria Island Historical Society to come up with interesting facts about the city’s history to present during the event.
“I’m looking forward to what they come up with,” he said.
Murphy said the city will create a commemorative flag for the event and place it on every other light post along Gulf Drive and Pine Avenue, alternating posts with American flags.
He added that the city may offer some of the commemorative flags for sale to the public.
Murphy has previously said the city would create commemorative coins to hand out at the event.
Commissioner Deanie Sebring, a member of the Anna Maria Island Garden Club, said the club members want to donate a bench with a plaque commemorating the centennial.
Sebring said the bench could be placed near the flagpole at City Pier Park, where the garden club contributed to the recent addition of two wind sculptures as a part of an effort to beautify the island.
“We thought that would be kind of a nice touch,” she said.
There was no public comment.