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The Festival of the Little Hills, held just a short distance from the Boat House, was a great opportunity to showcase our boats, demonstrate expertise in traditional skills and make new friends. We also kick off the busy fall activity season, with many opportunities to join re-enactments. You can immerse yourself in history, or just help out in a small way. Just sign up and show up!

As part of Missouri's statewide bicentennial celebration, the Governor's Office will be hosting a Bicentennial Inaugural Parade in Jefferson City on Saturday, September 18, 2021, at 10 a.m. to showcase Missouri’s past, present, and future. We'll need folks to ride the Keelboat in the parade, dressed in period clothing and waving like they mean it! Sign up in advance and we can help you get the clothing you need.

We will be representing the City of St. Charles. The Bicentennial Inaugural Parade will celebrate the swearing-in of Missouri's elected officials from this year's Bicentennial Inauguration as well as highlight the history and significance of all 114 counties across the state of Missouri. Please signup with Brigitte Bowers (brigitteandnorm@sbcglobal.net).

After visiting with some of you at FOLH in St. Charles I thought it would be a good idea to send out an update and itinerary for the event. Please understand that the event is still almost a month away and things change. This itinerary is not set in stone so please remain flexible.

Before I get to the itinerary I would like to answer some of the questions that I have been

asked.

Will there be electricity available for camp? Yes, there will be electricity run from the museum

at night but we will have to remove it during the day because of tripping hazards and primitive

ambience.

What is the correct contact information for the hotel? The first notification for the hotel was

incorrect. The hotel that has a block of rooms set aside for us is the Budget Inn 573-581-1440.

Are showers available? Yes, showers are available at the YMCA a few blocks from camp.

Transportation is on your own so we will need to carpool.

What about food? I’ve discussed food in the following itinerary with the exception of

breakfast. We will have cereal and fruit each day. If you need something more there may be

breakfast available at the hotels, (not sure) there are several local restaurants that serve

breakfast or there will be a lot of food vendors on site.

Wednesday September 22. Keelboat needs to be in place. Because of the tight space if

we wait until Thursday other camps will be in the process of setting up and will make

getting the keelboat to its location extremely difficult or impossible. I don’t think that

we will need any help for this operation. Kenny, Tom Ronk and myself can handle this.

Thursday September 23. I would like for a crew to arrive at the location by 2 PM to help

with camp setup. We will be setting a full camp with the Discovery Tent. After camp is

set we will go to a local restaurant for dinner.

Friday September 24. This is the day that camp is closed to the general public and we

will be doing stations for the local school kids. I would like the following stations for

each day, Captains/Orderly tent, keelboat, red pirogue, clothing/uniforms, Discovery

Tent, weapons, fire starting, medicine, and rope making. Brigitte will prepare her

famous chicken salad for lunch. The Historical Society traditionally has a fish fry on

Friday night and they are serving us at no cost.

Saturday September 25 10AM. We will be the lead all the re-enactors in the raising of

the flag. This is a big honor for us so we need to put on our best show. Full dress

uniforms, weapons and accoutrements please. We will be raising the 50 star flag with

our 15 star flag below it. Francis Scott Key will sing the Star Spangled Banner first and

we will follow up with Chester. Stations the same as Friday. Lunch will be pulled pork

sandwiches. Stations will end at 5:00 PM to allow us to attend the re-enactors only

dinner which is provided at no cost to us. After dinner there will be several events

performed by various re-enactment groups that you may want to attend. A cowboy

gunfight will happen at 8:30 that you won’t want to miss.

Sunday September 26. This is the last day of the event. Stations will be the same.

Lunch will be sub sandwiches. Camp must remain open until 4:00 PM so please, please

plan on staying until the end to help with camp breakdown and loading. Arrangements

for security have been made to allow us to leave one of our boats until Monday so our

primary objective on Sunday will be to remove camp and get the keelboat on the road

back to St. Charles.

Fort Massac Annual

With a number of special events coming up (and we hope, no floods or heat waves), we are hoping to "spruce up" (pun intended) the entryway and surrounding areas of the Boat House with mums, mulch and bulbs. Your cash donations could help us ensure we are looking our best!

Form 990, Annual Tax Filing As a 501(c)3 non-profit, the Discovery Expedition of St. Charles is required to file an annual statement for public viewing. We've just completed the 2020 report and it's published here for your reference.

Guidestar Listing We have Silver Certification from Guidestar, a trusted directory of all U.S. nonprofits (free log-in may be required)

We're glad to accept gifts of cash via our online portal and we are a 501(c), with donations eligible for tax deductions. We hold Silver Certification from Guidestar, so you can feel comfortable donating.

Seeking a tax-advantaged way to handle your retirement plan's Required Minimum Distribution? Consider a Qualified Charitable Distribution, with our helpful IRS resources here.