NATCHEZ — The start of 2016 and the Natchez Tricentennial is less than a couple of weeks away, but are we ready?

“We are absolutely ready,” Tricentennial Director Jennifer Ogden Combs said.

The city’s yearlong celebration is on track to be filled with daily events and activities in commemoration of the city’s 300th birthday.

While details and logistics for some events and sponsorships are still being finalized, Combs said she feels confident the city is ready for the celebration.

Combs said the tricentennial staff has been finalizing events month by month, starting with January, to ensure plans and logistics are finalized as well as fine tuning the tricentennial website — natchezms300.com — and creating a distribution plan for information and fliers locally.

“The train is out of the station, and there is no turning back,” she said.

Fundraising and sponsorships

Approximately $208,810 has been committed in sponsorships to fund the tricentennial, Combs said.

Title sponsors for the tricentennial are donors who commit $15,000, $25,000, $50,000 or more.

Sponsors so far for the tricentennial include:

-Humana — $10,000

-Adams County Board of Supervisors — $15,000

-American Queen — $15,000

-C Spire — $15,000

-Gillon Group — $10,000

-Entergy — $50,000

-Ridgepoint Consulting — $1,000

-Volkert & Associates — $15,000

-Natchez Historical Society — $500

-AT&T — $10,000

-Paul Green & Associates — $15,000

-Natchez Bed-and-Breakfast Association — $300

-Delta Bank — $2,500

Ogden said close to $6,500 has also been given to the tricentennial by anonymous donors.

Other companies such as Silas Simmons and Coca-Cola have committed to sponsorships but the amount has not been finalized, Combs said.

Coca-Cola will also be producing commemorative bottles for the tricentennial as part of its sponsorship.

Maker’s Mark bourbon whisky company is also partnering with the tricentennial for cross-promotion of the celebration. The details about what exactly the promotion will entail have not been finalized, Combs said.

Some sponsors have committed to sponsoring particular events or types of events while others want to sponsor permanent commemorations such as a bench in Tricentennial Park, which is what the area at the colonnades at the Natchez Visitor Reception Center is being renamed.

Other organizations such as the National Park Service, the National Festival of Music and the Historic Natchez Foundation have partnered with the tricentennial commission to donate in-kind services of volunteer and staff time on various projects, including the NPS Natchez History Minute videos, one of which will be released every day in 2016.

Approximately $8,000 was raised for the tricentennial through commemorative license plate sales, which should be in for those who purchased in January. Of the plate’s $31 or $32, if purchased online, price tag, $24 stays in Natchez for tricentennial efforts.

The city has also been awarded a $100,000 Rural Community Assistance Program (RCAP) grant from the Delta Regional Authority and a $60,000 grant from the state tourism department over a two-year period to assist with the planning, organizing and marketing costs associated with the tricentennial. Approximately 50 percent cost matches for the grant will be paid by the Natchez Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Combs came on board as tricentennial director not quite a year and a half ago.

The city previously hired a consultant to fundraise and promote the tricentennial, but the consultant terminated the contract after not following through with projected fundraising efforts.

Fundraising since Combs took the helm has been deliberate and creative.

“We’re having a chance to not only be creative with it ourselves, but also more people are getting involved with it in the community,” Combs said. “In a way, it becomes very positive. I think what we’re developing is even better than if we had been handed a blank check.”

And fundraising doesn’t end Jan. 1, 2016, Combs said.

“We have the opportunity to continue sponsorships and receiving donations as the year goes on,” she said. “We are so very appreciative of all donations from the smallest to the largest. We do not live in a huge community, but we do live in a very, very generous community.”

The calendar

All but approximately 21 days in 2016 have tricentennial events and activities scheduled, and even those 21 days, Combs said, will have a Natchez History Minute.

From a biscuit festival to a Blue Angels flyover, Combs said the year’s events will cover an expanse of interests and activities as well as feature bigger and better flagship events such as the Great Mississippi River Balloon Race and others.

Events are still being added to the calendar, and Combs said the tricentennial commission has outlined criteria for sanctioned events, which will be added to the official calendar and incorporated into tricentennial marketing.

Combs said officially sanctioned events must be racially, ethnically, and/or culturally diverse, politically neutral, appropriate to local Natchez customs, readily marketable regionally, nationally, and/or internationally, have a potential for legacy, a community service component, financially viable and well planned and organized.

Applications for events can be found online at natchezms300.com or picked up at the tricentennial office in the visitor center.

Volunteers

The tricentennial commission has recruited approximately 130 volunteers so far, Combs said.

“(It’s) amazing,” she said. “People are interested in volunteering whether it’s youth-related, health and wellness, the arts or whatever their interest.”

The volunteer committees for the various aspects of the tricentennial — social and ethnic history, faith, music, arts and others — have been especially crucial in planning and organizing the tricentennial.

“The committees have just been creating some fabulous programs,” Combs said. “It’s a testament to the strength of the community and the commitment of our community to not seeing this as just for a year, but as setting a new norm for community collaboration and uniting a vision around making Natchez better and more collaborative and telling all of our stories.”

As far as extra staff for the tricentennial, Combs said she would like to hire more staff if it’s financially possible.

“If we have the budget to hire, I would love to do that even if it’s part-time,” she said. “(City tricentennial liaison) Kelin (Hendricks) and I have worked way more than five days a week getting this thing together. We just know it’s going to be really, really special.”

The tricentennial staff has created a database of volunteers it will use to help staff events and provide assistance during the celebration, Combs said. Throughout the year, volunteers will receive emails about upcoming events for which volunteers are needed.

The tricentennial is also working with the Natchez-Adams County Chamber of Commerce to form a tricentennial ambassador program similar to chamber ambassador initiative. Participants would receive training and take an active volunteer role in the tricentennial.

“My prayer is that it brings people together in ways they have never been brought together,” Combs said.

Those interested in volunteering for the tricentennial can fill out an application on natchezms300.com or call the visitor center at 800-647-6724.

Beyond a year full events and milestones, CVB Director Kevin Kirby said the tricentennial is opportunity to create a sense of legacy in the community.

“Collectively, that legacy is the development of batons that are passed to the next generation so that you not only create a community that is here and now, but you create a continuum, and that continuum is built on the respect and admiration and the belief that Natchez can be as we all know it can be,” Kirby said. “And the next generation takes that baton with pride and carries it forward and makes it even better.”