Dear Friend of Lafayette,

This has been another active and productive year for the AFL. Since our last Gazette in October, the AFL and its members have participated in a plethora of Lafayette-related events. These have included Yorktown Association Day in October, a book donation event at the Lafayette Regional School in Franconia, NH in December, Virginia Lafayette Day in March, a reception honoring Diane Windham Shaw in advance of her retirement from Lafayette College in April, and state-mandated Lafayette Days in Massachusetts and New Hampshire in May.

On a personal note, I traveled to Mobile, Alabama in early April where I gave two talks, one of which was facilitated by AFL member Al Cleghorn, who was in attendance. This was a milestone for me, as Alabama was the 24th of the 24 states that Lafayette visited where I have harangued audiences about Lafayette. During my southern trip, I also spent two wonderful days in LaGrange, GA where I was hosted by AFL member and Lafayette Alliance leader Dr. Richard Ingram. I lectured at two different venues there on a single day.

This year also saw our peripatetic cartographer/historian Julien Icher make great strides across the eastern half of the country, adding 18 states (19 if you include West Virginia, which was not a state until the 1860s) to the six New England states that he had mapped in 2017. Julien has been a wonderful ambassador for Lafayette (and the AFL) and has generated great interest in our hero with public lectures, press reports, and interviews. He has also started to implement the second phase of The Lafayette Trail project which contemplates the installation of Lafayette Trail signs in the numerous cities and towns that Lafayette visited during the Farewell Tour.

2019 is the 195th year since the commencement of the extended victory lap that Lafayette took in 1824 and 1825. This means that the bicentennial of the Farewell Tour is practically at hand. The AFL Bicentennial Committee, co-chaired by Peter Riley and Julien Icher, will be working on a plan to celebrate this milestone with appropriate aplomb and grandeur.

Best Regards,

Alan R.Hoffman