Colonial Heritage Festival

This is a picture of my daughter Arianne Baadsgaard Cope with three of her five children Samuel, Sophia and Logan.

My daughter Arianne was a volunteer presenter at the Colonial Heritage Festival this past weekend.

She is a master artisan at many of the lost arts including, spinning, weaving, soap making, food preservation, hand sewing, the use of herbs, and wood carving and decoration. She believes that so many of us are disconnected from the things we eat and use everyday. For example she makes a connection from sheep to shawl and from garden to pantry in a way that is soul satisfying. As her mother - it delights me to see her connection to God's good earth, the skillful use of her hands, her preservation of lost arts and skills and her desire to freely share what she knows. I love seeing my grandmothers come alive through her.

The Colonial Festival is sponsored by the Heritage Foundation (a public charity dedicated to the preservation of the values, culture, skills, and history of America's Founding.) They believe many of the problems that face America today can be largely alleviated if individuals and communities return to the values of the the great patriots of America's founding.

These principles include:

the commitment to individual liberty

providing justice for all

a strong work ethic that leads to self-reliance,

the individual desire to acquire an education that supports liberty

the willingness to make personal sacrifice for the good of the community

a belief in Divine Providence

a sense that we all have responsibility to live lives of virtue to quality for God's intervention on behalf of our nation.

These values were commonplace in the lives and thoughts of seventeenth and eighteenth century North Americans but are harder to observe in the fabric of today's American culture.

Because of people like my daughter Arianne, and the other volunteers at the park this past weekend, my grandchildren were able to attend reenactments of the Tea Tax Debate, George Washington's commission and the writing of the Declaration of independence.

Thank you Colonial Heritage Festival and all the volunteers like my daughter Arianne for giving me a way to celebrate the 4th of July in a way that was interesting, educational, meaningful and fun.