Multiples of 50 Founders Day: Continuing Team Coverage

Confidential Restonian Operative "Joel" shared this exciting photo of Bob Simon arriving at Saturday's Multiples of 50 Founders Day festivities by pedicab. By all accounts, it was a star-studded event:

Master of Ceremonies Chuck Veatch — one of the original salesmen for the “New Town” back in the 1960s — read Simon’s words from Reston’s dedication at the Founder’s Day celebration at Lake Anne Plaza on Saturday.

“The deed of Reston celebrates not the completion of this new town, but symbolizes its beginning,” Simon said in 1964. “It is a place where people will come to live, work, play and call their own. We have just begun to build — there is very much more to come. But from this day forward, Reston is its people.”

Several hundred people — some of them original Restonians or children of original Restonians — were in attendance Saturday for the celebration of Reston’s 50th birthday and Simon’s 100th birthday. Also paying tribute — Gov. Terry McAuliffe; Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam; Sen. Tim Kaine; Rep. Gerry Connolly; County Supervisors Sharon Bulova and Cathy Hudgins; and Virginia General Assembly members Del. Ken Plum and Sen. Janet Howell.

President Obama sent a congratulatory letter!


Other politicians also praised Simon and Reston's place in history. Give us some good blockquote, BFFs at Reston Now:

Reston’s place in history was was a top topic during the tributes. In Virginia in 1964, segregation was alive and well. Simon envisioned an open, inclusive community where people of all races, ages and incomes could live.

“We moved here in 1969,” said Hudgins, who is black. “Things were different in this country and in the world. We are lucky we found a place here. Reston has been able to give us and so many other people the feeling that they belong. … Reston is and has been a model.”

Sen. Tim Kaine, who also served as governor of Virginia from 2006 to 2010, put Simon’s vision in perspective.

“In 1964, when Reston opened, discrimination was rampant and legal,” he said. “It wasn’t until 1968 that the federal Fair Housing Act was passed. It wasn’t until 1971 that the Virginia General Assembly passed the South’s first fair housing law.
“Bob [Simon] was a real visionary,” Kaine said. “All human beings ought to be able to live together and be neighbors. When we look at Virginia history since World War II, Bob should be one of the 5 or 6 individuals. Bob took a state that was facing backward and turned it facing forward.”

The Action McNews folks were there in droves!



Or if you don't like the "filter" the liberal media places on everything, here's the raw footage:



As for Simon, along with touting his long-standing habit of having one martini each night, he offered some advice for the whippersnappers youth:

"Get out of your rooms where you keep your high-techery. Get outside. Get on a bicycle. Get on the tennis court. Row a boat, paddle a boat, sail a boat. All the things that make life for a fuller life than just exercising your thumbs," says Simon.

Love the term "high-techery." Does that mean we can't use our iPhone at the cupcakery?

All in all, a worthy event for two most worthy milestones. That'll do, Reston, that'll do.