Portsmouth 375th Delegation Attends Lord Mayor Making Ceremony

Today was our big official day, which started at 9:30 AM in the Portsmouth Guild Hall for the Lord Mayor "Making" Ceremony, a public event with several hundred people in attendance. During this impressive hour-long ceremony, the outgoing Lord Mayor, Frank Jonas, was congratulated for his many accomplishments over the year and the new Lord Mayor, Ms. Lynn Stagg was installed.This was followed by an array of public service and youth awards, a performance by the local children’s choir, and much ceremonial pomp and circumstance. In addition to our own delegation, we met the delegations of Portsmouth’s sister cities from Maizuru, Japan; Caen, France; and Duisberg, Germany. Portsmouth’s close connection to the Royal Navy was also on display in the form of a Royal Marine Band and several color guards from Navy and Cadet units.

Following the ceremony itself, we had our photos taken with the new Lord Mayor on the steps of the Guild Hall. A short time later, we ere invited to  attend an actual business session of the Council, which turned out to be quite contentious and iteresting to us “colonials.”  The Mayors of Portsmouth’s sister cities also spoke at this meeting, discussing the high value that they put on the cultural and ducational exchanges that had been put in place as part of their “twinning” relationships. I think these kinds of exchanges would be especially useful for our own students if we can establish a similar relationship with Portsmouth, England. The new Lord Mayor herself was a school teacher and would be very supportive of such activities.

After the Council session concluded, we were invited into the Lord Mayor’s Parlor for tea and cookies, where we formally presented our proclamation and invitations to the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress to visit us in Rhode Island at the end of August for our 375^th celebration events.

In the evening we were invited to dinner in the Lord Mayor’s dining room, which seated about a hundred people comfortably. After an excellent meal, I had an opportunity to give a short speech of greeting from the citizens of Portsmouth, RI, and to describe our town and our 375^th Anniversary Celebration to the assembled
guests, who included friends and family of Lynn Stagg, the new Lord Mayor,
other Portsmouth officlals, and guests from abroad. The evening was concluded
with a charity raffle, in which we had 6 winning tickets from our table of 10.
Altogether, a very educational and enjoyable day.