Tamaqua officials have announced plans for a ceremony commemorating the 250th anniversary of the United States of America.

The program will be held at 10 a.m. July 4 at Tamaqua Liberty Tree Park, home of Schuylkill County’s Liberty Tree, at 31 N. Railroad St. The site is across from the Tamaqua Train Station.

The ceremony will open with a welcome from Tamaqua Mayor David Clemson and will include music by The Cressona Band; participation by Tamaqua’s C.H. Berry American Legion Post No. 173; prayer by Pastor Josh Nemeth of St. Peter’s Church in Mahoning Valley; and participation by the Tamaqua/Mahanoy Chapter of the Masonic Lodge.

The Pledge of Allegiance will be led by Don Searfoss, and the national anthem will be performed by area vocalist Carly Green. A recitation of Thomas Paine’s poem “Liberty Tree” will be offered by Steve Ulincy, a Benjamin Franklin impersonator and American history teacher at Tamaqua Area High School.

The program will also include a reading by Angelique Ramirez, the winner of the fifth-grade essay contest on the theme “What America’s 250th means to Me.”

The guest speaker will be John E. Jones III, president of Dickinson College and former chief judge of the U.S. Middle District Court of Pennsylvania. A native of Schuylkill County, Jones was officially named Dickinson’s 30th president in 2022 after serving as interim president beginning in 2021.

Jones is a son of the late John E. Jones Jr. and Patricia Jones. He is a graduate of Mercersburg Academy, Dickinson College and Penn State Dickinson Law.

Before assuming the presidency, Jones served as chair of Dickinson’s board of trustees and concluded a distinguished career on the federal bench as chief judge of the U.S. Middle District Court of Pennsylvania. Appointed by President George W. Bush and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2002, he served for nearly two decades and presided over a number of high-profile cases.

In addition to his judicial service, Jones co-chaired Gov.-elect Tom Ridge’s transition team and served as chair of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. His career has been recognized with numerous honors, including being named one of the Time 100 most influential people in the world in 2006, receiving the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s inaugural John Marshall Judicial Independence Award, and being inducted into the George Washington Spirit Society.

He and his wife, Beth, have two children and four grandchildren.

“This ceremony is an opportunity for our community to come together and reflect on the meaning of our nation’s founding,” said the Rev. Dillon Epler, co-chairman of the committee organizing the program. “As we approach the 250th anniversary, it’s important to take time to remember where we’ve come from and consider what that legacy calls us to today.”

As part of the ceremony, the Mahantongo Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution will dedicate an America 250 Patriots Marker at the park. The national initiative places markers across the country to honor the men and women who supported the cause of American independence during the Revolutionary era.

Liberty Tree Park has emerged over the past two years as one of Tamaqua’s most meaningful new public spaces, created through the removal of long-blighted properties along North Railroad Street and the vision of transforming the site into a place of reflection, education and community gathering.

The Liberty Tree is part of a broader statewide effort tied to the America250PA initiative, which commemorates the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding.

Inspired by the original Liberty Trees — most famously in Boston — where colonists gathered in protest and unity in the years leading up to the American Revolution, the modern Liberty Tree Project seeks to plant living symbols of freedom in communities across Pennsylvania.

The tree in Tamaqua is a descendant of the last surviving Liberty Tree in Annapolis, Maryland, which was later lost during a hurricane, providing a tangible living link to that earlier symbol of American independence.

The trees serve not only as historical reminders, but as gathering places for reflection, education and civic engagement as the nation celebrates its semiquincentennial throughout 2026.

“As a living tree, this connects us to history in a way that a monument alone can’t,” Delaney Renn, a member of the committee and a recent graduate of Temple University’s Horticultural Science and Environmental Sustainability programs, said. “It’s something that will continue to grow with the community for generations.”

As the park continues to develop, it will also be home to Schuylkill County’s Liberty Tree Bell, a student-led project developed by Tamaqua Area Middle School students under the direction of Kim Woodward, further linking the next generation to the nation’s founding ideals.

With the addition of the America 250 Patriots Marker and ongoing improvements, Liberty Tree Park will continue to develop as a place for community gathering and remembrance.

The public is invited to attend as Tamaqua joins communities across Pennsylvania and the nation in commemorating America’s 250th anniversary.