A PROCLAMATION

by his excellency
GOVERNOR MITT ROMNEY
2003

whereas	The nation’s first Thanksgiving took place here in Massachusetts
whereas	The first “recommendation” that there be a day, “set apart…for solemn thanksgiving and praise, that with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts and consecrate themselves to the service of their divine benefactor…,” was proposed on November 1st, 1777, by Samuel Adams, a Son of Massachusetts, and later adopted by the thirteen states as the first official Thanksgiving Proclamation; and
whereas	Philanthropy – “Private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life”– is both essential to civic health in self-governing societies, and generally recognized as an appropriate expression of gratitude on the part of donors for the benefits they enjoy in life; and whereas Massachusetts citizens have throughout our history, provided many leading examples of philanthropy that have benefited our entire nation and the world; and
whereas	Our citizens should be commended for their philanthropy, and encouraged to sustain its growth in partnership with government as together we seek to enhance the quality of life for all our citizens,

Now, therefore, I, MITT ROMNEY, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, do hereby proclaim November 28, 2003 to be

GIVING MASSACHUSETTS DAY

and urge all the citizens of the Commonwealth to take cognizance of this occasion

Given at the Executive Chamber in Boston,
this sixteenth day of September
in the year of our Lord two thousand and three,
and of the Independence of the United States of America,
the two hundred and twenty eighth