The America 250 NC commemoration offers the opportunity to explore the rich tapestry of local history across the state. Through the support of an America 250 NC County Committee Grant, the Gaston County commemoration team is working to highlight history of the region through their programming.
Committee member Adam Gaub said, “The goal is to really to tell the story of Gaston County through the lens of its role in America’s history.”
The Gaston County team is raising awareness of the America 250 NC commemoration through video, social media, and event outreach to highlight their varied and robust history over the last 250 years.
Gaub said, “So, not just focusing on pre–Revolutionary War days or what our role was in terms of when the Revolutionary War happened, but then going through and looking at key things that Gaston County was a part of.”
In addition, the committee’s interest in increasing community awareness about Gaston County’s role in the Revolutionary War, the committee seeks to shed light on local stories involving the labor movement and civil rights. They are also working to provide more information to the public about the role of the Catawba Nation in the area’s story.
“Those are the different types of stories to kind of blend that quilted fabric of Gaston County's history that we're trying to tell,” Gaub said.
Multiple community organizations are working together on the commemoration in their county.
When asked about forming a county committee Gaub emphasized the power of “bringing a lot of really good people to the table.”
“We've got folks from our county museum, folks from our library. We've got like seven or eight different county departments that have representation at the table... We've been really happy so far with the kind of the excitement and enthusiasm about the overall national and state level project and then and what we're trying to do here in Gaston County,” Gaub said.
The Gaston County team has already been able to accomplish some educational goals.
“Well, I think there are a lot of people that maybe know the highlights of American history, but don't know as much about what … some of the key events have been here. And some of that we found out just by talking to different people on our own staff... We're often amazed, ‘oh, that was something you never learned about until you were an adult.’
Well, maybe we need to do a better job of helping tell those stories,” Gaub said.
Gaub expressed hope that by making Gaston County’s rich history more well-known, that the county committee could help bring people together.
“When we applied for the grant, like one of the themes that you could choose from was common ground, which is the one that we went with and that's I think kind of the basis of what we're trying to build here. This idea of shared experience and things that can kind of pull us together as community,” Gaub said.
To learn more about getting involved in Gaston County visit their website America 250 Gaston | Gaston County, NC.