POULSBO — With a finalized logo under its belt and just four months to go, the Centennial Planning Committee is now hitting the streets looking for sponsors for the much-anticipated 100th birthday of Little Norway’s government.

A string of events has been planned, spanning from the January 2008 history-based opening event to a final Yule tide celebration, with enough to keep Poulsbo’s citizens busy for all the months in between.

“We’re going to start going out and enlisting sponsorships,” said committee member and city executive assistant Carly Michelson. “It’s actually going really well.”

Michelson said a sponsorship tier has been created. The committee hopes to find one $7,500 title sponsor, four $4,000 major sponsors, and various other sponsors donating between $250 and $1,000.

“We’re really making it an opportunity for the smaller businesses,” she said.

The Jan. 26 opening event will offer families a free day of experiencing Poulsbo’s past with Jewel Box Theatre reenactments and Poulsbo Historical Society exhibits which will conclude with a wine-tasting fund raiser for the PHS. Following are plans for a spring rowing event, summer street dance, and fall harvest festival at Fish Park and the Martinson Cabin. A community walk winding through the city’s historical gems and newly-founded Centennial Park will kickoff the park’s official opening, and a sculpture contest is currently in the works.

“We’re doing quite a bit of stuff next year and in order to get it to fly we have to raise money,” said committee chair Connie Lord.

Business owners who choose to sponsor the event will receive substantial name recognition throughout the year, with their names appearing on city centennial flyers, advertisements and banners. Flags are planned to decorate city streets for the duration of 2008, and T-shirts and pins will also be designed.

“It’s pretty exciting to put something like this together and really do it right,” Lord said. “There are a lot of people who’ve already stepped up to the plate.”

Poulsbo Mayor Kathryn Quade said she is looking forward to the yearlong bash.

“I’m excited about the celebrations that are being planned,” she said.

Lord said the events downtown will provide a draw for area merchants, who in Poulsbo’s first years made up the city government.

“We want to make sure we honor the origins of the town,” she said. “It ties in with downtown because downtown is where everybody settled. I can’t think of it being anything but a positive.”

Lord said she would also like to see the city government’s past linked in with the tribes’ history, and maybe even have a canoe event as one of the year’s agenda items. She is even working to create a Poulsbo Boat rendezvous.

“We’re going to have a lot of things going on next year,” she said. “It’s going to be great.”