Pennsylvania became one of the first states to establish an official organization for the U.S. semiquincentennial in 2018, which is also when the organization began fundraising for celebrations centered on July 4 of this year.

And even though the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding has passed, America250PA will continue operating through this year and use 2027 to wind down its operations.

Cassandra Coleman, America250PA’s executive director, said the commission has events and presentations scheduled through the end of this year. It was always part of the plan to celebrate the semiquincentennial for all of 2026.

“We wanted to make sure the year 2026 was a whole calendar year,” Coleman said. “We want to do some sort of commemorative item to put into the (Pennsylvania State Archives) as the documentation of this historic time … cataloging everything that's needed.

“We’ll use 2027 to pull that up and finish up closing up our warehouses.”

Coleman said she has been with America250PA since the commission was established. She is the longest-serving director of any state semiquincentennial commission. She is the former mayor of Exeter borough in Luzerne County.

Coleman said the commission was established with the understanding that it would not be fully funded by taxpayer dollars, but through investment from municipalities and individuals across the state. The commission had no money appropriated from the state budget when it was created, Coleman said. However, it received a $100,000 startup grant from the state so Coleman could start fundraising.

The commission has since been allocated a total of $13.5 million since 2018.

Throughout that same time, the commission raised about $10 million from private investments. Coleman said more than 400 municipalities throughout the state contributed to the semiquincentennial fund.

The commission’s budget was used to pay its staff, but also to pay for materials and supplies for the celebration, as well as warehouses where items were kept. Coleman said staff members worked remotely throughout the tenure of America250PA.

Because, as Coleman explained, there wasn’t really a road map for the project, even though the commission took some cues from the 200-year anniversary of the U.S., celebrated in 1976. She attributes the millions of dollars the commission received as donations to the cooperative relationships it had with municipalities statewide.

“I think the goal here really was engage the counties, as many people as possible,” Coleman said. “I didn't want to be in a state commission and come in and say, ‘This is what we’re going to do, let us highlight it for you.’”

Coleman said the commission has instead acted as a highlighter of the most important parts of individual regions, as designated by people from those regions.

“I strongly believe that was why Pa. had so much buy in,” she said.

And Butler County was no stranger to this cooperative relationship. Like each of the 67 counties in Pennsylvania, Butler County received two fiberglass bells through America250PA’s Bells Across PA project. One is displayed at the Butler County Courthouse and the other at the Cranberry Township Municipal Center.

Experience Butler County also planted a “Liberty Tree” at Moraine State Park, also as a commemorative piece for the semiquincentennial.

Amy Pack, president of Experience Butler County, said the bell stationed in Cranberry Township is planned to be mobile and be available for future patriotic-themed events in the county. The bells are tangible reminders of the semiquincentennial, Pack said, in addition to an archive the organization will keep online.

According to Pack, the current Butler County website will be kept alive online, but will become a means to document the year.

“We plan to keep the site open until the end of the year, and then we’re going to summarize all the activities and put them there, so there will always be information about how we celebrated our semiquincentennial,” Pack said. “We'll still be adding things to that website through the end of the year.”

Butler County’s semiquincentennial celebrations also didn’t end when the clock struck midnight July 5. Pack said there are events scheduled locally through the end of the year. For instance, a one-room schoolhouse tour was held on Sept. 12.

“It’s far from over,” she said.

And it wasn’t just events that money from the state went toward. Coleman said in April, the commission awarded $250,000 in scholarships to high school seniors across Pennsylvania. The organization had buy-in from colleges and universities that scholarship money from America250PA could be put toward.

“We had over 40 Pa. colleges that worked for us that if the student chose the institution,” Coleman said.

Coleman said 2027 will mostly be a year of closing down operations for America250PA, with the legislation that established the organization providing that language from the start. This year will culminate in a ceremonious crossing of the Delaware River on Christmas Day, which Coleman said is a tribute to George Washington’s storied crossing 250 years ago.

After that, the staff of the commission will begin archiving the organization’s doings over its eight-plus-year history and start clearing its rented spaces.

“We'll use 2027 to pull that up and finish up closing up our warehouses,” Coleman said.

Pack emphasized that even though the state commission will become a thing of the past, its influence over the semiquincentennial will be carried on by her office.

“It has been so much, across the state for sure, but there’s a lot of people who got excited about it for Butler County,” Pack said. “I hope that just becomes a part of our history.”