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Community Projects

There are many ways kids can celebrate President Lincoln’s 200th birthday!  You might even help get your town excited about it.

Talk to your Scout or youth group leader or your teachers about what you can do to make this a birthday to remember!

Here are some ideas:

  • Encourage a special parade in honor of Lincoln’s 200th birthday or design a Lincoln Bicentennial float as part of a Fourth of July or other community celebration.
  • Have your class write letters to your mayor or governor asking them to issue a proclamation for the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth.
  • Talk to the postmaster at your local post office to plan a Lincoln Bicentennial stamp event.
  • Stage a public reading of some of Lincoln’s most famous speeches.
  • Plant a special Lincoln Tree on the grounds of your town hall or in your local public park.
  • Ask your principal or other official to place a picture of Lincoln in the front lobby or other important location of public buildings like schools, town halls, libraries, police or fire stations.
  • Organize a poster contest at your school with the theme “Happy 200th Birthday President Lincoln!”
  • Encourage your Scout or youth groups to perform in Lincoln birthday celebrations.
  • Research your community’s history during the Lincoln Era, especially during the Civil War.
  • Prepare a map showing the locations of counties and cities named for Abraham Lincoln.  Do the same for streets, schools, or businesses in your community.
  • Have students work in teams to prepare detailed proposals on appropriate legacy projects to observe the Lincoln Bicentennial.
  • Ask school officials to organize an amateur Abraham Lincoln look-alike contest. 
  • Sponsor wreath-laying events at Lincoln statues, Civil War veteran statues, and include re-enactors and music.
  • Visit and plant flags and the sites of veteran graves generally, and Civil War veteran gravesites in particular.  This activity would be especially appropriate around Memorial Day.
  • Hold a ceremony to plant trees to honor Lincoln’s birthday at your school or a nearby community park.  Oaks are good symbols of the Union and the strength of Abraham Lincoln.
  • Study the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, and talk about how it represents Lincoln's strengths.  Draw a new one based on what you've read about Lincoln. 
  • Ask your teacher to have your class divide up and take sides in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates.
  • Write and perform a play about Lincoln's trip down the Mississippi River to New Orleans.
  • Gather as many images of Lincoln as you can find, from official portraits to advisements, and arrange them in a collage with a theme to put on display.
  • Create an exhibit of Lincoln stories, jokes, and quotations for your school hallway or local history museum or public library.
  • Ask your teacher to organize an in-school competition of the reciting of the Gettysburg Address.
  • Plan to visit a site related to Lincoln.
  • Read a Lincoln biography.
  • Watch the national televised celebration on February 12, 2009.
  • Volunteer to help your state with Lincoln Bicentennial events and programs.
  • Plan an Abraham Lincoln Birthday Party.

Click here for tips on promote your local commemoration.