Daytona Beach staff outline yearlong 2026 sesquicentennial plan, request ambassador appointments

City of Daytona Beach communications staff presented a yearlong plan for the city’s 150th anniversary in 2026 and asked that commissioners appoint ambassadors to help run events and fundraising.

Julie Varley, a communications specialist with the City of Daytona Beach, told the Youth Advisory Board that “celebrating a sesquicentennial is a hundred 50 years, which is a pretty big celebration for a city.” She outlined live and digital events, a proposed ambassador committee, scholarship ideas and branding and asked the board to help involve students and the community.

Varley said the city began internal planning in February 2024 and hopes commissioners will establish ambassador appointments this month so the ambassador committee can begin meeting in May. “We are working together to get an ambassador committee established. So the commissioners have been asked to appoint 2 individuals each,” she said. She described the ambassadors as expected to meet monthly and conduct public meetings with public comment and subcommittees.

Major events described include a weekend-long marquee celebration in July 2026: a free Friday concert at the band shell, a Saturday fireworks show produced by the Friends of the Band Shell and a Sunday family day at Daisy Stocking Park with performances, food and donation drives tied to existing give-back programs. Varley said other activities would be “sprinkled” throughout the year by adding sesquicentennial branding and messaging to existing events — the mayor’s fitness challenge, Easter beach run, crab and seafood festival and holiday festivities.

Staff proposed several digital elements to run alongside in-person events: a mobile “agents of discovery” style app for historic-trail trivia, social media photo and video campaigns showing “old versus new” images, and an AI-animated sequence of former mayoral portraits telling brief histories. Varley also said the city aims to launch a standalone sesquicentennial website by the end of this year with an event calendar and an e-commerce shop (staff identified Shopify as the platform under consideration).

The presentation included a scholarship concept and other community-engagement ideas. Staff outlined a possible scholarship selecting 10 local high‑school students, with three selection-path options (essay, pep-rally game challenge or hand selection similar to an existing mayoral honor program). Varley said organizers looked at a potential award amount of $5,000 per scholarship as one option but added that funding would need to be raised through sponsorships and donations.

Varley said staff intend to create sponsorship packages (tiered levels such as silver, gold and platinum) to fund events and the scholarship. She said staff had already received phone inquiries from longtime residents and that the ambassador committee could help recruit businesses and educational partners and set criteria for competitions, such as a youth photography or video contest.

Board members asked process and logistics questions including who appoints ambassadors, whether meetings would be public and when the ambassador meetings would begin; Varley said internal city staff meetings have been private but ambassador meetings would be public. She said a resolution earlier in the year established the ambassador board and its criteria and that she planned to put four nominated ambassadors on the May 7 city agenda for appointment.

No formal actions or votes were taken by the Youth Advisory Board at this meeting. The presentation concluded with staff planning continued internal meetings and outreach to recruit ambassadors and partners for the 2026 program.

The city presented multiple next steps observers can expect: commissioners’ formal appointments of ambassadors, the ambassador committee beginning monthly public meetings, fundraising and sponsorship outreach, website development by the end of the year and further planning for the July 2026 weekend celebration.