Hillsdale College Hosts All-American Hometown Celebration
The event featured a Freedom Truck mobile museum and other activities celebrating America’s 250th anniversary.
HILLSDALE, Mich. — Hillsdale College, local Hillsdale businesses, and Freedom 250 hosted the Hillsdale All-American Hometown Celebration April 23-25. The event featured a Freedom Truck mobile museum and other activities celebrating America’s 250th anniversary.
“America’s 250th anniversary is an opportunity for us to learn — or relearn — America’s history and fall in love with our country again,” said Matthew Spalding, Hillsdale’s vice president for Washington operations and the academic advisor for the Freedom Truck project. “These Freedom Trucks help visitors of all ages learn about the principles, achievements, and heroes that have made America great and worth celebrating.”
“These Freedom Trucks help visitors of all ages learn about the principles, achievements, and heroes that have made America great and worth celebrating.”
Sponsored by Freedom 250, the Freedom Truck mobile museum at the center of celebration is one of six touring the country as part of the nation’s semiquincentennial celebration. Featuring narrative and documentary content from Hillsdale College, the mobile museums tell the story of America’s colonial beginnings and War of Independence, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and end of slavery under Abraham Lincoln.
Hillsdale provided curricular materials for elementary, middle, and high school students that are being used for the Freedom Trucks nationwide and partnered with the White House to produce the video series “The Story of America.”
Admission to the museum and other activities was free and open to all.
“This was a celebration worthy of America’s 250th birthday,” said Diane Philipp, vice president for student affairs. “It was exciting to see the whole community come together and celebrate our freedoms, our history, and our American hometown.”
“It was exciting to see the whole community come together and celebrate our freedoms, our history, and our American hometown.”
Campus activities included a bald eagle experience, a farm animal petting zoo, touch-a-truck entertainment, statue walks with historic reenactors, a Liberty Bell exhibit, a craft station, food trucks, and more.
City events included a kids’ Bible camp, a rodeo featuring bull riding and barrel racing, a historic train experience, a classic car show, and the opening of the downtown farmers’ market.