Ohio will celebrate America’s 250th birthday all year
The Ohio Commission has events scheduled to celebrate the state’s contributions to the United States
CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - The United States will celebrate 250 years on July 4 with the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
But fireworks and July 4th festivities are not all Ohio has planned.
“Obviously, July fourth is the big day because that is the big birthday day,” said Michael Dylan Brennan, former University Heights Mayor and Regional Outreach Ambassador for the Ohio Commission of America 250.
“We want people to understand we’re celebrating America and Ohio’s contribution to America the entire calendar year,” Brennan continued. “We have an entire calendar year’s worth of programming in all kinds of different areas in all eighty-eight counties.”
Picnics, flag raisings, trail openings to celebrate the home to eight U.S. Presidents, the birthplace of aviation pioneers Neil Armstrong and the Wright Brothers, and the first state carved out of the Western Reserve.
“Ohio was not a British Colony,” Brennan relayed. “We are the first truly American state in that respect.”
Brennan stresses it’s about history, warts and all, and The Ohio Commission has already had a City Club talk with a Native American expert on their influence and importance in the development of America.
“Indians tribes and the U.S. government, so it was a very sobering look,” Brennan related. “The actual history, not the mythology.”
Starting in February with “Ohio Goes to the Movies,” there will be free screenings in all eighty-eight counties of movies with Ohio connections.
“We’re kicking it off in Milan, Ohio, on February eleventh over at the Thomas Edison Center,” he said. “So there are Ohio connections to these movies, and every county gets to host at least one of them.”
Hundreds of free moves in the state that gave us Thomas Edison, who invented the movie, the year 2026, a time to reflect.
“It’s important to take time to celebrate and remember who we are and how we got here, the best of who we are and how we got here,” Brennan concluded.
You can find more information on The Ohio Commission’s events on their website.
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