SPENCER — French dignitaries, music, veterans, inspiration and history will all be part of the 10 a.m. parade and 11 a.m. ceremony kicking off Rowan County’s 49 Days of Gratitude on Saturday in Spencer.

Through the closing ceremony March 30, the 49 Days will be filled with exhibits, programs and collections for nonprofit groups stressing the themes of gratitude, World War II and French culture.

It’s all inspired by the 70th anniversary of the Merci Train, or Gratitude Train.

In 1949, the French people sent 49 boxcars filled with personal gifts they donated to the United States in thanks for the American Friendship Train of 1947.

The Friendship Train represented $40 million worth of relief supplies the people of the United States had sent to Europe after World War II.

North Carolina received one of those French boxcars Feb. 8, 1949, in Raleigh, and the little 40-and-8 car — named for its ability to hold 40 soldiers or eight horses — has long been a resident of the N.C. Transportation Museum in Spencer

For the 49 Days of Gratitude, the Transportation Museum has refurbished the 40-and-8 car, which will be on display in the Back Shop through March 30.

In addition, the museum will have a large display featuring some of the actual gifts from French people that came inside North Carolina’s Merci Train boxcar.

The French items are on loan from the N.C. Museum of History and Rowan Public Library. There also will be military items from the museum’s collection.

To go with the gratitude theme during the 49 Days, the Transportation Museum is offering $1 off regular admission for people bringing in a minimum of two nonperishable food items for Rowan Helping Ministries.

The collected food will be part of an American Friendship Train display at the museum.

But maybe tops among the many things kicking off Saturday will be the presentation and distribution of Gratitude Donation Boxes, which will be placed in sponsoring locations throughout Rowan County over the coming 49 days.

Individuals, churches, businesses and local organizations are sponsoring the boxes, which are collecting supplies (not money) for the nonprofit organizations the sponsors have chosen.

Boxes are still available for sponsorship at $100 each. Those interested can visit www.49DaysofGratitude.com for information; call 704-636-2889, Ext. 228, or send an email to betsy@49daysofgratitude.com.

“We need people to sponsor boxes,” said Kimberly Lentz, one of the chief organizers for 49 Days of Gratitude, along with Sherry Mason Brown and the Transportation Museum. “And we’ll help them find a location.”

The parade of 30 units will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday at Eighth Street in Spencer and proceed north on Salisbury Avenue to Samuel Spencer Drive — the entrance to the Transportation Museum.

Lentz said ROTC units, big military vehicles and plenty of veterans will be participating in the parade. A parade favorite from years past, the local Voiture’s 40-and-8 train, will be rolling, too.

The opening ceremony starts at 11 a.m. in the museum’s Back Shop with David Whisenant of WBTV as emcee and television personality Beth Troutman as featured speaker.

Troutman’s talk will center on the theme of gratitude. Troutman won two Emmys for a series of documentaries filmed while she was working at a Haiti orphanage. She most recently completed shooting the documentary “Give Kids the World Village” in Orlando, Florida.

Also at the opening ceremony, Henderson High School Principal Alexis Cowan will sing, accompanied by Adrian Smith.

Alina MacNichol, mezzo soprano for Opera Carolina, will sing the French national anthem.

Several other dignitaries and guests are scheduled to be in Spencer on Saturday.

Lydie Surget, president of the Alliance Francaise of Charlotte, and Anne-Lise Gallay, deputy cultural attache for educational and university affairs of the Consulate General of France in Atlanta, will attend the opening ceremony.

Brigitte Helzer, executive director in New England of the joint French-American-Italian project celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Merci Train, will come from her home in Vermont.

Helzer was 7 years old and the youngest participant in the official New York State reception and parade given for the Merci Train on Feb. 3, 1949, in New York City.

Other special guests will be John and Sue Stevens. John Stevens now oversees the MerciTrain.org website, a duty he inherited from the website’s founder, the late Earl Bennett Sr.

Lentz said veterans will have seats of honor at the opening and will participate in the placement of colors and a wreath-laying ceremony to close out the morning.

Members from 40-and-8 societies from across the state have heard about the 49 Days of Gratitude and have said they will attend.

Funds for the restoration of the 40-and-8 car at the Transportation Museum came from the La Societe des Quarante Hommes et huit Chevaux Grande Voiture of North Carolina.

A schedule of what’s happening through the March 30 closing ceremony can be found on the website mentioned earlier, and it also has information on The Butterfly Project, which middle-schoolers throughout the county are participating in.

Here are some other dates and things to look for related to the 49 Days of Gratitude:

• Feb. 9-March 30: The North Rowan Fresh Artists Silly City Exhibition (related in part to the Transportation Museum) will be on display at Waterworks Visual Arts Center, 123 E. Liberty St., Salisbury.

• Feb. 13-March 30: Rowan-Salisbury Schools student exhibitions tied to the 49 Days of Gratitude, Waterworks.

• Feb. 15: Rufty Holmes Senior Center’s 49 Days of Gratitude Movie Cinebar, 9:30 a.m., is an open invitation to the public to have a continental breakfast and watch the true story of Desmond T. Doss, a conscientious objector who became a World War II hero. Reservations are being taken through Feb. 14.

• Feb. 15: Art Crawl. the Salisbury trolley will have stops at Waterworks, Center for Faith & the Arts and more.

• Feb. 16: Night at the Museum with GI Joe, held at both Rowan Museum and N.C. Museum of Dolls, Toys & Miniatures.

• Feb. 20: African-American involvement in World War II, Hood Theological Seminary.

• Feb. 23: Introductory swing dancing at Rowan Public Library; showing of World War II movie “Anchors Aweigh” at the East Branch of  Rowan Public Library; showing of World War II movie “Casablanca” at South Rowan Regional Library in China Grove/Landis.

• Feb. 25: Gratitude Journaling at Rowan Public Library.

• Feb. 27-March 3: Tuskegee Airmen exhibit “Rise Above” at the N.C. Transportation Museum in Spencer.

• March 9: Salute to Women in Service at Hefner VA Medical Center. Also, the “Meet Me in Paris” gala, the annual fundraiser for the Center for Faith & the Arts, at Lee Street theatre.

• March 15: “The Great War” — Phoenix Readers & St. John’s Lutheran Church

• March 16: American Girl “Molly on the Home Front” at N.C. Museum of Dolls, Toys & Miniatures.

• March 22:  Merci Weekend, “All Things French.” Among other touches, downtown Salisbury stores will be encouraged to have French themes.

• March 24: Cinema CFA (Center for Faith & the Arts) presents “Sarah’s Key,” an American film about the rounding up of Jews during World War II.

• March 30: Closing ceremony at North Rowan High School.

Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263.