To mark the end of the campaign, and to honor and recognize the contributions of tens of thousands of people who stood up and rebuffed the casino’s attempts to buy our city, there will be a community Meet and Greet held on Saturday, November 11th, and Sunday, November 12th from 12:00 noon until 4:00 pm on the lawn near The Carillon at Byrd Park.
The 100-foot-long “VOTE NO CASINO… AGAIN” banner which was flown in the skies over Richmond on October 15th as part of the No Means No campaign will be laid out on the lawn to allow all residents to leave their autographs acknowledging their vote and role in this historic referendum.
At the close of signing on Sunday, the banner will be donated to the Valentine Museum for its archival history collection. Upon receiving the news of the donation from the No Means No Casino Referendum committee William Martin, the Director of The Valentine Museum responded… “It’s our role to document and preserve these important moments in Richmond’s history and we’re excited to add this to our collection.”
In addition, residents are asked to bring their yard signs to the gathering. A random selection of the yard signs will be included in the donation to the Valentine Museum and the others will be collected if you choose not to keep them. The collected signs will be cached locally, and be available for future needs — just in case they try to bring this back a third time…!
by Farid Alan Schintzius
Photo by Steven King
