America250 on Monday announced it reached a critical milestone in a volunteer initiative designed to mark the semiquincentennial.
The America250 commission surpassed over 2.5 million volunteer hours in its effort to pull off the largest national volunteer initiative in U.S. history.
“As I’ve met with partner organizations and community leaders across the country, I’ve felt a real groundswell of Americans eager to serve and reconnect,” Rosie Rios, chairwoman of America250, said in a statement.
“Surpassing 2.5 million volunteer hours confirms what I’ve been seeing firsthand — that service is bringing people together in powerful ways,” she said. “America Gives is tapping into that momentum and channeling it toward our 250th anniversary, reminding us that service has always been at the heart of who we are as a nation.”
America250 is the entity tasked by Congress to mark the U.S.’s 250th birthday this year. Walmart, Target, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the MLB are among the leading groups and companies fueling volunteer momentum in the commission’s latest campaign.
Other major corporations are getting involved as well, with Coca-Cola System pledging to generate 250,000 volunteer hours, and Boeing announcing it will match employee volunteer time with monetary donations to eligible nonprofit groups, according to the commission.
The volunteer program is one of a slew of initiatives America250 and others, including the White House-created Freedom 250, have launched to mark the semiquincentennial.
Some of the largest celebrations will take place in Pennsylvania. The state was the first in the nation to pass a resolution designating all counties partners with America250, as it boasts the site where the Declaration of Independence was signed and served as the seat of the Continental Congress, making it the birthplace of U.S. independence.
NO LABELS MAKES APPEAL TO WASHINGTON AMID AMERICA 250: ‘MAKE SURE THIS EXPERIMENT CONTINUES’
In Philadelphia, officials say they have invested over $100 million in celebrations and partnerships spanning more than 60 community and cultural organizations. Over the weekend, Philadelphia officials announced they will be bestowing the Liberty Medal on the Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV during Fourth of July celebrations to recognize his “lifelong work promoting religious liberty and freedom of conscience and expression around the world, ideals enshrined by America’s founders in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”
The pope will deliver live acceptance remarks virtually from the Vatican, and his speech will be livestreamed to those in attendance on Philadelphia’s Independence Mall, according to NBC Philadelphia.