By Charles Owens
For Bluefield Daily Telegraph
Bluefield — Anticipation is building for next week’s arrival of a unique Freedom 250 exhibit in Bluefield.
The Freedom 250 Truck, a massive interactive traveling museum that celebrates America’s 250th anniversary, will arrive in Bluefield on Friday, May 29, as part of the Cole Chevy Mountain Festival. It will remain at city park through Sunday, May 31.
The mobile museum’s arrival in Bluefield is part of the ongoing Freedom 250 campaign by the Trump Administration, which celebrates the story of America’s founding. That story began 250 years ago with the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.
“There is a huge buzz around it,” Jeff Disibbio, president and chief executive officer of the Chamber of Commerce of the Two Virginias, said of the Freedom 250 truck. “Honestly I think we are underestimating the size and scope of this because there isn’t another one of these trucks that is going to be anywhere within a couple hundred of miles from us.”
The Cole Chevy Mountain Festival will be the only stop for the Freedom 250 Truck in West Virginia. It’s next closest appearance will be more than 200 miles away at the State Fair of Virginia in Doswell on September 25.
Disibbio said tourism officials across West Virginia and Virginia are promoting the truck’s arrival in Bluefield.
“People who are seeing this throughout the state of Virginia have been posting on some of their tourism (sites) that they are absolutely thrilled to be able to see it,” Disibbio said, adding that he expects visitors from across West Virginia and Virginia to visit the Cole Chevy Mountain Festival during its opening weekend just for the purpose of touring the Freedom 250 Truck.
“We are absolutely thrilled to be able to bring the Freedom 250 Truck for the first weekend of the Mountain Festival,” Disibbio said. “It is a huge honor to be able to have this come to Bluefield, West Virginia.”
Other localities across the Mountain State also applied for the Freedom 250 exhibit, but only Bluefield was chosen, according to Disibbio.
“The other places that applied for the July 4th application throughout the entire state of West Virginia didn’t get the truck like we did,” Disibbio said. “There were thousands of applications and we were selected as one of the destinations.”
Disibbio said a number of “special guests” are expected to be on hand next week for the opening of the Freedom 250 Truck in Bluefield, including federal lawmakers.
“I’ve had multiple Congress people to call about attending, and maybe even a few surprise guests,” he said. “It is something that I started working on a couple of months ago and we were lucky enough to be accepted because it had some substantial requirements for us to meet.”
The Freedom 250 campaign is an initiative of the Department of Commerce, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Interior, the Department of Justice, the Department of Labor, the Department of State, the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of War, the Environmental Protection Agency, the General Services Administration, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Program, NASA, the National Archives, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Small Business Administration and the White House.
The Freedom 250 campaign was launched last year by President Donald Trump in anticipation of America’s approaching 250th birthday.
According to the Freedom 250 website, the nationwide celebration tells the story of the men and women who 250 years ago helped to create the United States of America while making American freedom possible.
The interactive mobile museum will be on display during the first three days of the 10-day festival and will be stationed along Buccaneer Drive, near the tennis courts and the caboose at city park.
The Cole Chevy Mountain Festival begins on Friday, May 29, and continues for 10 days at Bluefield City Park, concluding on Sunday, June 7.
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